


A Proper Kryptonian Proposal

by alittlelesspain



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, background supercorp but not enough to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-04-18 05:24:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14206023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlelesspain/pseuds/alittlelesspain
Summary: Astra comes up with a brilliant plan to get Kara to propose to Lena, and ropes Alex in to help her. Along the way, though, she just might find herself ambushed by her own feelings for Alex.(Written for the General Danvers Monthly #6 prompt: Matchmaker)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [GDMonthly6](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/GDMonthly6) collection. 



> **Written for the Prompt:** Someone is playing matchmaker, and it involves Alex and Astra. Are they the ones trying to set Kara up? Is another character setting them up?

It is when her niece has been seeing Lena Luthor for the better part of two years, with nothing substantial announced of their relationship, that Astra realizes something.

“She is afraid to propose.” she states one evening, as she stares down at the playing cards on the coffee table before her, knowing it to be true as soon as the possibility enters her head.

Alex, sitting opposite from her, plays her turn and draws another card, before looking up at Astra.

“What?” she asks, confusion plain on her face.

“Kara has been seeing Lena Luthor for more than a year now.” Astra elaborates. “On Krypton, they would have been betrothed by now. There’s only one possible reason why that is not so.”

“We’re not on Krypton.” Alex points out.

“And yet,” Astra presses, “Surely my niece has not forgotten our ways so completely.”

She can see the love in Kara’s eyes whenever she looks at Lena, and the palpable happiness that lights up the room when her niece comes back from a “date” with her. It stands to reason, then, that there is only one thing holding her back: fear.

“She need a push.” Astra says decisively, discarding a card and drawing another.

“Astra,” Alex says, pinching her nose, before reaching for the stack herself, “Don’t interfere in her love life. Kara is a big girl now.”

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t need guidance.” Astra argues.

She can feel Alex eyeing her evaluatively over the fanned cards in her hand, with her gaze that always strikes a little deeper than Astra wants it to, and always ends up unearthing something that Astra would rather have stay hidden.

“You aren’t letting this go, are you?” Alex asks, eventually, some resignation in her tone.

“You don’t have to worry.” Astra assures her. “I will be very tactful.”

“Tactical, maybe.” Alex says, frowning as Astra lays down the cards she had been hoarding, revealing a straight flush. “Tactful, though, isn’t a word I’d believe coming from you, Astra.”

\---

 

“Kara, you are being a turkey.” Astra says sternly the next day, over the regular weekly dinner that her niece subjects their little family to.

Alex, sitting beside her, chokes on her wine, before shooting her a murderous look that Astra thinks is frankly undeserved.

“What?” Kara asks, looking between them as she distractedly passes Alex a tissue.

“You are being a turkey.” Astra repeats, only to be met with a confused stare.

“Oh god, she means chicken.” Alex says, when her hacking subsides, as if one form of Earth’s poultry was somehow more disposed towards cowardice than another. “And what the fuck happened to being ‘tactful’, Astra?”

“Ok, what is going on?” Kara intervenes, looking suspiciously between the two of them.

“You are being a chicken.” Astra amends. “About not asking Lena to be your betrothed.”

Kara flushes as soon as she hears the accusation, almost knocking aside her glass of water as she leans back defensively.

“I’m not-” she says, before stopping and looking away,  “I mean, it’s never come up.”

“You have been her mate for nine months.” Astra points out, which induces a fit of gagging from Alex, and causes Kara to flush even deeper. “Anyone can see that she thinks the world of you, and you of her. What is keeping you from asking for her hand?”

“We’re taking it slow.” Kara protests.

“I’ve seen glaciers move faster, Little One.” Astra says.

She had had some moments of disquiet, when she first learned of the object of Kara’s affections, and done her own investigation into her family. However, Astra more than anyone knows how far a fruit can fall from its family, and Lena has proved her devotion to Kara time and time again, has repeatedly stood up against her family despite even the threat of death.

(It reminds Astra of another young woman who had done the same against her aunt, and who would have lost her forever, if brave Alexandra had not extended an olive branch, all those years ago on the rooftop.)

Most importantly, though, she makes Kara happy, which is why Astra cannot understand her niece’s current hesitation.

“Surely you’re not afraid that she will refuse?”

“Of course not!” Kara says. “I mean, I don’t know? We’ve never talked about it. Alex-”

She turns pleadingly to her sister, only for the latter to put a firm hand up.

“Oh, hell no.” Alex says, “I’m not getting involved in this. And _you_ -” she points at Astra, “ _never_ use ‘mate’ in that context again.”

Astra is barely listening to them, for an idea is starting to sprout in her mind.

Well, perhaps her niece _is_ wary of taking the next step forward, for whatever reason, and Alex doesn’t want to get involved. That leaves Astra herself, to nudge Kara forward. As for the best way to do so... well, Kara, for all her diplomacy, a trait she shares with Alura, has never backed down from a challenge, just like Astra.

“I think my dear niece maybe be intimidated by the prospect of conducting a proper Kryptonian proposal.” she muses, languidly stretching back in her chair, a movement that seems to cause Alex to immediately look away.

“Am not!” Kara retorts eloquently.

“Really?” Astra tilts her head, considering the best way to proceed with this. “I know the steps can be arduous, Kara. I can understand if Supergirl is not up to the task.”

“Am too!”

“Well, that is settled, then.” Astra leans forward, smiling with satisfaction. “If you are so sure of your success, you will have no trouble accepting my challenge.”

Kara looks at her with widening eyes, as if sensing too late the trap she had fallen into. It is a gesture so reminiscent of Alura that a wave of fondness immediately washes over Astra.

“When?” Kara asks eventually, resignation evident in her tone.

“You will have two _fanfs_ from now - that is roughly two earth weeks - to complete the challenge, as is traditional.” Astra says. “And, just to make it fair, I will undertake it, too. If you’re too scared to go against me, I understand, of course.”

Kara’s eyes flash.

“You’re on.” she says immediately. “Just wait until I wipe the floor with you.”

“Bold words, Little One.” Astra says, pleased both at understanding one of Earth’s idioms, and of Kara’s quick acceptance.

She had known her niece was too much like her, to be cowed for long.

“What are you two going on about?” Alex grumbles, putting her now-empty glass of wine to the side, and reaching over for Astra’s untouched one.

“It is a Kryptonian tradition, mostly followed by the Kandorian houses.” Astra explains, swatting her hand away. “To prove that you were worthy to ask the hand of your beloved in marriage, you had to complete three challenges. Usually, it was against a rival suitor, but in this case I will take the place of such a challenger.”

“What the fuck?” Alex asks, before rubbing her forehead. “Never mind, you know what? I don’t even want to know.”

“I will take you as my helper, Alex.” Astra announces.

“Hell. No.” Alex growls.

“No fair!” Kara says, at the same time.

“I am still getting used to Earth’s ways.” Astra points out, playing her trump card shamelessly. “I will need Alex’s guiding hand.”

“Fine.” Kara concedes. “I’m getting Lucy to help _me_ , then.”

And so, the challenge begins.

\---

 

Astra flies into the DEO late the next night, concerned when Alex hadn’t come by at the time when her shift was due to be over.

“Astra!” Alex looks up guiltily now, from the machine that she had been tinkering with, as she strides into her lab after a cursory tap on the door.

Astra simply hands over the flask of coffee that she had brought along, briefly concerned by how exhausted Alex looks. She knows something about living up to impossible ideals, about being unintentionally shadowed by brilliant siblings, but she hasn’t figured out how to rid Alex of such notions. All she has learned is that, sometimes, silent support seems to be accepted and appreciated more by the prickly Alex, than if she voices her concerns aloud.

“I thought you might need this.” she says, instead, as Alex grabs for the flask. “Although, I’m not entirely sure how you ‘take it’.”

“Anything is better than what we get out of the coffee machine here.” Alex says, in between long gulps, before finishing with a quiet, “Thanks.”

Astra simply shrugs, imitating the motion that Alex herself is so fond of.

“You don’t have to, you know?” Alex says quietly.

“The coffee?” Astra asks. “It is only a drink, Alex.”

“I mean, you don’t have to wait up for me.” Alex says quietly. “I know you’re still technically under observation by the DEO, but it’s been more than two years, and J’onn is fine with you moving about on your own.”

She looks up at Astra, her gaze that unnervingly piercing one again, and Astra finds herself caught, feels her heart racing in a way it rarely does on this planet, except when Alex is involved.

In the beginning, dropping by the apartment that Astra had picked out near Kara’s residence had simply been a duty for Alex, as the DEO agent in charge of monitoring her house arrest. Long after the probation year had finished, though, Alex has continued to visit every night, and Astra hasn’t dared to question it yet, out of fear that she might misunderstand it as her not being wanted, that she might stop visiting, skittish as she is about accepting her value in other’s lives.

“I made too much food for dinner again.” she says instead, reaching out and tucking away some strands of hair behind Alex’s ear, that had fallen into her face while drinking the the coffee. “I can usually depend on my Little One to finish it up, but she is working late at Catco on an assignment tonight.”

“Right.” Alex says, and her heartbeat seems elevated from its usually steady rhythm.

“Are you alright, Alex?” Astra asks, immediately worried, drawing her hand back.

Is it not fever that makes humans’ temperatures run higher, and their hearts beat faster? And of course, Alex’s immune system would be further weakened by her exhaustion. Humans are so fragile, even compared to Kryptonians under a red sun, a thing that had not personally concerned Astra until she had gotten to know this particular human, who does the most _reckless_ things-

“I’m fine.” Alex says and indeed, her heart-rate seems to be returning to its regular pace now. “Give me five minutes to pack up, and we’ll see about that leftover dinner of yours.”

Astra waits outside, a little surprised at being asked to stay, as Alex usually rebuffs her offers to fly her, preferring her vehicle instead. Before she can wonder whether it’s the exhaustion or something else, Alex is walking towards her, and sliding her hand into Astra’s, a small smile entering her face.

There is the warmth of that hand in hers, squeezing her fingers with a strength that she almost feels despite her Kryptonian invulnerability, and then they’re up into the air, Astra lifting off with more of a kick than usual.

Alex inhales deeply when they both land in Astra’s apartment, before casting an evaluating look at Astra’s kitchen and turning back to her.

“You’ve stopped setting the stove on fire.” she says, in a mock-impressed voice, which gets a huff out of Astra.

“That was _one_ time.” she grumbles, following behind as Alex gravitates towards the kitchen table.

“Uh-huh.” Alex says, around her first mouthful. “And that time you screwed up the microwave. And I don’t even know _what_ you did to the kettle, to melt the plastic like that.”

Astra scoffs at that last accusation - the flimsiness of Earth’s technology is hardly her fault - but waits until Alex is a few bites in, before she speaks again.

“I have been thinking about the challenges.”

“Ugh.” Alex says, looking up from her plate with a frown. “I thought you’d forget about that.”

“I don’t forget anything.” Astra says seriously.

“You don’t, do you?” Alex asks, and her smile is almost - though Astra doesn’t dare to completely believe it - fond. “But Astra, are you sure you want to be butting into Kara’s life like this?”

“I’m her aunt.” Astra says, frowning. “It is my job, as I understand it, to be ‘butting’ into her life.”

“Just...” Alex sighs, before starting again. “Just be aware, this could seriously backfire.”

“I’m willing to take that chance.” Astra says stubbornly. How is she supposed to learn how to be family to Kara, without _trying?_

“Fine, what about the challenges?” Alex asks, though the concern doesn’t quite leave her face.

“The three challenges are as follows.” Astra intones. “For the first, you must find a wondrous elixir, to signify that your beloved will never thirst for water when you can provide for them. For the second, you must prepare a feast, to symbolize that they will never go hungry as long as you draw breath. For the the third, you must present them with a formidable weapon, to symbolize that you will protect them from all harm.”

She looks expectantly at Alex when she finishes the pronouncement, who takes two more leisurely bites of the food, before she looks back up.

“I don’t know how you always make such weird stuff sound so... hardcore.” she says. “A wondrous elixir... what does that even mean?”

“Something unusual and wonderful to drink.” Astra replies. “When Zor-El courted Alura, he went all the way to Alpha Xerxes to bringing her back water from what they call the Fountain of Youth there.”

“Water from the Fountain of Youth.” Alex repeats skeptically, putting down her fork. “What kind of import duties did he have to pay on that?”

“You keep stringing words together that make perfect sense individually, but that I can’t understand as a whole.” Astra says, frowning.

Alex doesn’t crack a smile at that, or get diverted as she had hoped, and continues to stare at her instead.

“And what did Non get you?” she asks abruptly

Astra looks down at the half-empty plate, ambushed by a question that she had frankly been hoping to avoid.

“Non and I were... not that kind of match.” she says, finally, when Alex simply keeps staring at her, not backing down from her inquiry.

“Then, what kind _were_ you?” Alex asks, still in that carefully toneless voice.

“We had to get married to enter the military, and to be able to apply for the permit to travel offplanet.” admits Astra, not entirely comfortable at the direction that the conversation is taking. “That was more important to the both of us than... personal feelings.”

“Oh.” Alex says, still watching her oddly.

Astra feels as anxious as when she had walked into the entrance examination for the Military Guild for the first time, or when she had sat at the navigation control pad of her first cargo pod, as an ensign in the Kryptonian space fleet. Whatever silent tests lurks in Alex’s eyes, through, it seems she passes it, because she resumes eating as voraciously as before, getting only one question out in between bites.

“Where are we going to find this ‘wondrous’ drink?”

“That is the catch.” Astra says, breathing easier as she settles back into the more familiar terrain of problem-solving. “Usually, I would have a dozen planets that I could set off to, in search of such a thing. On Earth, though, I don’t even know where to start.”

There is a thoughtful gleam entering Alex’s eyes now, though.

“Offworld, huh?” she murmurs, looking up at Astra and frowning a little, before smiling lopsidedly. “I think I have an idea how we can manage that.”

\---


	2. Chapter 2

“Is this necessary, Alex?” Astra asks, smoothing down the borrowed white shirt over her stomach, before she stalks over to the similarly arrayed human standing next to her bike.

Alex had remained tight-lipped about her idea until that evening, when she had insisted that Astra accompany her on her deathtrap of her vehicle to some mysterious destination.

Alex, looking vulnerable and even more human in her casual outfit, than in the usual DEO uniforms she favours, gives Astra a cursory look up and down, seeming rather triumphant at the end of her study.

“Absolutely, general.” she confirms, with a twitch of her lips that Astra certainly does not fixate on. “And you do need to put that suit of yours in the laundry once in a while, so stop complaining and get on the damn bike already.”

“The suit is self-cleaning.” Astra grumbles, climbing behind Alex on the vehicle, and clutching her around the waist as directed.

“Doesn’t make it any less gross.” Alex says, although the reply is delayed, and - Astra really does need to direct her to a physician - her heartbeat spikes again. “Let’s go.”

\---

 

Astra clings to Alex tightly through the entire journey on her bike, more for the human’s safety than for hers. Every cell in her body is prepared to fly off into the air with her at the first sign of an impending crash, but they arrive unscathed to their destination.

The destination in question seems to be a rather nondescript looking metal door to an empty warehouse, until Astra’s super-hearing picks out the dimmed sounds of music and chatter from behind it.

“M’gann - J’onn’s girlfriend - owns this place.” Alex explains, leading the way for a wary Astra, “She caters mostly to an offworld clientele, so I thought maybe you’d find what you’re looking for here.”

There’s a confusing mass of gyrating bodies and noise inside, that almost overwhelms Astra at first. She tunes them out at first, focusing on Alex’s voice instead.

“Sorry, I think Thursday is dance night.” Alex says, taking them expertly around the dancing crowd, towards the quieter tables in the back. “This place is usually a lot quieter.”

Astra doesn’t speak, entranced by the sight around her, of aliens from a dozen different worlds congregating together. It’s almost like she’s walking through one of the markets littering the many spaceports she had docked at during her time in the Kryptonian fleet.

“Alexandra.” she whispers, gripping Alex’s hand tight, and feeling her squeeze back. “Oh, _Alex._ ”

“Thought you might like it.” Alex murmurs, the words tickling Astra’s ear, almost making her shiver.

“I never thought I’d see something like this again.” Astra mumbles, tuning back into all the voices around her, drinking in the sound of a half dozen languages being spoken all over each other at once, until it’s almost too much for her brain to handle.

“Ok, I brought you this far.” Alex says briskly, breaking her out of her near-trance by giving her a push towards the tables. “Go do your thing.”

“My thing?” Astra huffs, looking back at her. “You’re not abandoning me now!”

“Look, just the fact that I’ve got you this far is practically treason against the Danvers family.” Alex says, raising her hands. “You’re on your own from here on, general. I’ll be over there, if you run into any trouble.”

Astra grumbles about fickle humans and traitors for a while, but resigns herself to her fate soon enough, as Alex wanders off in the general direction of the pool table. Left to her own devices, she considers the dancing crowd briefly, and eyes the group playing darts a little longer. Her attention, though, keeps returning to the counter, where the bartender is idly cleaning glasses during a rare lull in patrons. Astra recognizes her as the Martian that she has seen assisting the DEO once in a while, during particularly fraught missions, a woman whom Kara cannot seem to sing enough praises of.

“We don’t stock Kryptonian drinks, I’m afraid.” M’gann M’orzz says doubtfully, taking her in, as Astra nears the bar. “You niece is fond of Aldebaran rum, though.”

“Kara has had what?” Astra starts indignantly, before catching herself and remembering that Kara is indeed an adult now, and can drink whatever she likes.

She shakes her head instead, before her gaze is arrested by one of the bottles nestled on the wall behind the counter, a display that she is almost certain is for aesthetic purposes. It’s a small bottle of Lyrian spirits, a rare find even at the busiest intergalactic markets. It is something Astra had certainly never expected to find on Earth.

“How much for that one?”

“That’s not for sale.” the bartender says dryly, without even looking back.

Astra nods, unsurprised. It’s customary. Something as rare as Lyrian spirits could not be bartered for money. As she casts her eye around the bar, stalling for time, her gaze lands on something she had taken in before, without fully computing it. It’s a game board, one that Astra recognizes from her time deployed in the Vardorian star system.

“I’ll play you for it, Martian.” she announces, rather more confidently than she feels.

M’gann looks back at the _loreeisi_ game board she had gestured at.

“You know the game?” she asks, looking back in some surprise at her, which Astra finds natural, for the Vardori had been notoriously isolationist in their prime, and the chances for cultural transferences rare.

“ _Yes_ .” Astra answers in Martian, holding back her satisfied smile as M’gann’s eyes widen. _“Will you let me play for it or not?”_

 _“Fine, it’s a slow night for drinks anyway.”_ the Martian says, in a half-amused voice. _“On your head be it, foolish Kryptonian.”_

She turns out to be rather conversational, for all her bark. Astra finds herself becoming quite interested in the well-travelled Martian’s talk, falling easily into discussing the peculiarities of the several planets that the two of them have lived on. M’gann seems to have lived on Earth far longer than she, listening to Astra’s grievances about adapting to it with amusement rather than comisseration, but with some understanding regardless.

They are well into their game, and in the middle of a discussion about the eccentricities of Earth’s cuisine, before the first interruption comes.

“Having fun?”

The song stops just as Astra turns around, so that she doesn’t need superhearing to catch Alex’s question.

“You look smug.” Astra observes.

“Let’s just say a certain Daxamite isn’t going to be bragging about his pool skills in this bar anytime soon.” Alex says, leaning back against the counter and observing the game board. “And I see you’ve really let yourself go wild.”

“Yes.” Astra says, as her eyes travel back to the game, trying to figure out where to move her key piece next. “Although, I am afraid this is going to take longer than I thought.”

She catches from the corner of her eyes, Alex looking curiously at M’gann, before the bartender shrugs.

“Forget the game.” M’gann waves her hand dismissively when Astra gestures at her to take her turn, before moving to the back and pulling out the bottle of Lyrian spirits that had caught her eye. “Here.”

“But-” Astra starts.

It is to Alex that M’gann proffers the bottle, though.

“You’ve brought me the first person here who can keep up with me in a game of _loreeisi_.” M'gann informs her. “You deserve it. Oh, and tell J’onn to get off work a little early tomorrow.”

Alex nods, looking as surprised as Astra herself feels, as she promises to pass on M’gann’s request to her director, and Astra makes her own farewells.

“That was easier than I figured it would be.” Alex murmurs, as they head for the door. “What is this thing, by the way?”

“One of the rarest spirits in ten galaxies.” Astra replies, carefully tucking the bottle away into her pocket. “Dragon blood is rumoured to go into the making of it. Surely nothing Kara can come up with can match this.”

“I don’t know.” Alex muses. “One thing about Kara, she knows how to do the impossible.”

“We’ll see.” Astra says.

“You know, I thought you’d go easy on her.” Alex says. “Seeing as her winning would actually work out in your favour.”

“I cannot just let her win, Alex.” Astra says reprovingly. “That would be against the spirit of-”

Her mouth snaps shut suddenly, throat seizing up.

“I think you just don’t like losing at anything.” Alex replies, her grip tightening as she tries to pull her through the crowd.

But Astra finds herself rooted to the ground, as a new song starts up in the bar, the raunchy melody of it hauntingly familiar.

“Astra?” Alex looks back mid-way, her focused expression morphing to one of worry, as they lock gazes. “Astra! What’s wrong?”

It is when Alex lifts a hand up, hovering inches away from her face, that Astra realizes her eyes had watered, an involuntary reaction to having been ambushed by that song. She looks down quickly, blinking and using superspeed to wipe away her tears without Alex noticing.

“Hey, what is it?” Alex persists, seeming only to grow more worried.

“It’s nothing.” Astra says, before thinking better of such a useless denial. “It’s the song.”

Alex cocks her head, listening to the raucous strains.

“It’s Valerian.” she says after a few beats.

“You know Valerian?” Astra asks.

“Just a few words here and there, that my dad taught me when I was young.” Alex says, waving as if to push the question away. “What does a Valerian song have to do with you?”

Astra finds herself transported back to dark nights when she would come back bonetired from the spaceport, fresh off yet another mission, and stumble into her bed, only to wake up the next morning to that very same silly song being hummed from somewhere around the house.

“Alura used to love it.” she finds herself saying. “It was one of her favourites to sing. It used to drive me mad, I remember.”

“I can imagine why.” Alex says dryly, cocking her head one again towards the speakers. “It _sounds_ earwormy.”

“I don’t know what an earworm is.” Astra admits. “But, I used to call that song the worst thing we had ever imported from Starhaven, and then Alura would threaten to use her diplomatic clout to have me permanently stationed on that very same planet.”

And now, Alura and Krypton and Starhaven, all dead and destroyed and gone, and the only remaining Kryptonians and Valerians alike stranded on Earth, that quaint little planet that neither world had paid much attention to, before.

“Hey, come on.” Alex says softly, tugging at her hand again, and smiling peculiarly at Astra. “You’ve got to admit, it’s kind of catchy.”

Before Astra can say anything further, she’s laced their fingers together, and is leading them forward again, this time into the dancing crowd. Not until they’re right in the thick of it, safely anonymous, does she turn back to Astra, the strange smile still on her face.

“I haven’t done this in a while.” she confesses, her arms coming around Astra’s waist, the warmth of them burning through the fabric of the shirt. “Not since college, actually. But, I figure I can’t have lost my touch entirely.”

Astra, dazed, merely responds mechanically at first, as Alex leads her in a fast-paced dance, full of complicated feet motions and arms flying everywhere. She lets Alex maintain the lead as she learns the steps, before catching her around the waist as the song speeds up, and throwing her outwards in a spin.

“I’m used to taking the lead.” she informs Alex, when she circles back in, a little wide-eyed.

“Yeah?” Alex asks, fire in her eyes.

“Yeah.” Astra echoes her exactly, smiling when her eyes narrow.

“Really?” Alex asks, stepping closer, her breath ghosting over Astra’s face.

Astra nods, too caught by that intense gaze to speak, too focused on the sensation of Alex’s arms settling around her waist again, this time with her thumbs stroking circles against Astra’s hips. Alex’s tongue darts out slightly, to wet her lips, and Astra is flames, tinder, ablaze-

“Too bad.” Alex whispers, mouth suddenly curving up into a smirk. “I don’t give up the lead that easily, general.”

Astra bares her teeth as Alex’s grip around her waist tightens, and she maneuvers them around, causing Astra to almost stumble from the speed of the rotation.

“You got lucky, Brave One.” she says, as she catches herself and stalks back, gripping Alex’s wrists and tugging them towards her.

Alex’s returning smile is lazy and infuriating and thrilling, all at once.

“Just try and keep up with me, Kryptonian.”

From there it becomes a fight, the two of them advancing and retreating in time to the music, their silent battle unnoticed in the crowd. It feels just as heady to Astra as their training spars in the DEO, this familiar rhythm of escaping each other’s orbit, before falling inevitably back into intertwined motion. She cherishes the chase all the more for the fleeting moments of contact in-between: the touch of palm to palm, fingers briefly linking into each other, a leg trailing down Astra’s own for a breath-taking moment.

But, as the Valerian song runs its course, so does their private battle. When a slower song comes on, they both find themselves softening their motions in response, bodies circling together in time to the music. One of Alex’s hands comes to rest on her waist, and Astra allows it, quite unable to protest when the other hand is twining fingers with her own, and squeezing.

“I hadn’t expected you to be so practised at this.” Alex admits, as they twirl around each other.

“Diplomatic missions.” Astra replies. “Many of them.”

“Well, you’re good.” Alex says grudgingly.

“And you aren’t bad, for someone out of practice.” Astra concedes, which gets her a huff and an eye roll for her troubles.

She observes Alex’s face, her eyes closed, and a smile of rare peace on her lips. The habitual furrow in the center of her forehead is nowhere to be found.

“Why _are_ you out of practice, Alex, when you seem to enjoy this so much?”

She doesn’t expect Alex to slow down their dancing further, and look down. The fingers wound around her own tighten, something Astra is sure is unconscious.

“Never really came up after i joined the DEO.” Alex murmurs, though Astra hears her clearly above the din of the bar.

Astra aches to reach out and flick away the strand of hair that had fallen into her eyes, to warm her hand against that downcast curve of cheek. But, even this, dancing in each other’s orbit, seems a miracle, an impossible dream come true. To reach for more, she knows, is folly.

“Another dance.” she says instead, tugging Alex back when the latter makes to pull away at the end of the song. “You _are_ out of practice, after all.”

“I am, aren’t I?” Alex asks, that peculiar half-amused and half-hesitant smile returning to her face.

“Yes.” Astra confirms. “I can see that we will need to dance many more, before you can keep up with me.”

“Right.” Alex snorts.

Astra nods, and shuts her mouth tight after that, because any moment now teasing words will flee and something more dangerous will emerge, something like “I would dance with you as many times as you want, to make up for all the ones you missed.”

But, as Alex relinks their hands, she finds it harder to care about such dangers.

\---

 

It is much later that the two of them leave the bar, and land on the balcony of Kara’s apartment, Astra with the bottle of spirits in her hand, and Alex clinging to her with a death grip.

“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?” Alex grumbles, as she releases her hold and moves away, the cold air surrounding Astra where a warm body had been pressed against her before.

“We only have two weeks, Alex. Time is of the essence.”

“But Kara might be-”

Astra, though, is already striding in through the balcony door, flourishing what they had won from M’gann.

“Little One.” she says proudly. “I do believe I have won our-”

She stops, realizing that Kara is not, in fact, alone. Across from her on the sofa is one Lena Luthor, who is looking uncharacteristically giddy, her glowing happiness only slightly marred by Astra’s sudden appearance.

“I told you.” come the words muffled between grunts from behind her, as Alex struggles to climb in through the window. “They usually have date night on Thursdays.”

“Oh, that’s alright.” Lena interrupts, still smiling more widely than Astra usually knows her to do, “I just dropped by to see Kara, because she said she had something for me.”

She beams at Kara, before lifting up a crate of something, and hefting it to her hip.

“Strawberry milk cartons?” Alex says from beside Astra, sounding as baffled as Astra herself feels.

“It’s from the store down the street from where my mother and I used to live.” Lena says, awe suffusing her face. “I remember, every Friday after work she’d take me down there and buy me one. It used to be our special treat.”

She looks at Kara with a mixture of confusion and wonder.

“How did you even find it, Kara? Last time I heard, the shop wasn’t even there. I thought they closed down.”

“They just moved states. Lucy helped me to track the new location down.” Kara answers with a modest smile at Lena, before throwing Astra a smirk over her shoulder, that Astra decides she will thoroughly tell her off for later. “I remember you telling me about them once, so I thought you’d like them.”

“I don’t deserve you.” Lena says fondly, before leaning over to kiss Kara - Alex makes a stifled disgusted sound and Astra kicks her discreetly in the ankles - and checking her watch. “I have to go now, to look over my slides for the board meeting tomorrow. Fly by the balcony later tonight, though, ok?”

Astra has to smile at the dazed look on her niece’s face, as she nods an eager goodnight, before both her and Lena disappear in a blur.

When Kara reappears a few minutes later, sans a Luthor, the smirk on her face disappears into disgruntlement when she looks at the bottle in Astra’s hand.

“I can’t believe you’re helping her!” is the first thing she says, directed at Alex. “If you had one bit of sisterly love for me, you’d be sabotaging her chances!”

“Hey, I didn’t even help her get that from M’gann.” Alex replies, stepping back and folding her arms defensively, “She just has some kind of... some weird alien general charisma! She’s even got M’gann going over to her apartment this weekend.”

“She’s as fond of nature documentaries as I am.” Astra puts in, making a mental note to needle Alex about this “charisma” later. “She agreed to show me how to work the Netflix.”

“She better not show you how to chill, too.” Alex mutters, a phrase that is entirely undecipherable to Astra, but which causes her niece to look at her with an evaluating look.

“Well, either way,” Kara says, still looking a little disgruntled, “I think I won this one.”

“With some common earth beverage?” Astra asks, outraged.

“I think Kara’s right.” Alex says, shrugging when Astra turns to her, aghast at the betrayal. “Your dragon spirits or whatever are cool, but Kara tracked down Lena’s favourite childhood drink, something she thought she’d never get to experience again after her mother died. That’s pretty deep. She went for the emotional jugular.” - she turns to Kara - “I didn’t know you had it in you, dork.”

Astra huffs, as Kara draws herself up and smiles proudly.

“Oh, stop pouting.” Alex says

“I am not!” Astra refutes.

“Are too.”

“Hey, I’m still here.” Kara interrupts, “And winning, I’ll remind you both.”

“Very well.” Astra says reluctantly; it might be in her best interests for Kara to win, but she has never been fond of losing. “You have bested me in the first challenge, Little One.”

The blinding smile and crushing embrace that she gets from Kara in return, though, is worth every bit of the concession.

\---


	3. Chapter 3

When Astra shows up at the DEO early morning on the following week, the first thing she notices is the distinct lack of a certain Kryptonian niece flying around greeting every agent in the place. The second thing she notices is Alex and Director J’onn J’onzz, as well as a few other agents, standing around the monitoring screens. Some of them are shaking their head exasperatedly, and some with amusement.

“Where is Kara?” Astra asks Alex in an undertone, pulling her away from the crowd gathered around the monitors, before recognizing the figure on the screens as Livewire. “Isn’t that the metahuman that is rather fond of my niece? Who has she been terrorizing, now?”

“All she’s done so far is steal half a bagel off some sunbather down by the beach, and issue a public challenge to Supergirl to come face her.” Alex says, rolling her eyes. “You’d think she’d be bored of this song and dance by now.”

Unlike the other agents, though, she doesn’t seem so interested in the spectacle on screen. Instead, she’s directing periodic worried glances down at the tablet she’s holding, the habitual furrow making itself known on her forehead once again.

“You could have one of your agents subdue her.” Astra points out.

“We could.” is the absent-minded reply. “That would probably involve an arrest for being a public nuisance, though, and a bunch of paperwork, and Kara pouting at me for a whole month. We figure it’s best to just let her go for a few rounds against Supergirl, and cool off.”

“But, Supergirl is late.” J’onn puts in curtly. “General Astra, if you would-”

“I will not.” Astra says boredly, sparing a glance at the screen, and ignoring the frustrated grunt from the Martian. “Besides, I think this Livewire misses my niece. I wouldn’t rob her of the chance for a reunion.”

And indeed, just at the moment, Kara rushes in, wildly waving a cup of coffee.

“Give this to Lucy when she gets in, please!” she gasps out, passing it to Vasquez, before rushing over to the crowd by the terminal. “Sorry, sorry, I got held up at Ca- well, anyway, I’m here now!”

“Hey, where’s _my_ coffee?” Alex asks grumpily.

“I was just thanking Lucy for helping me out.” Kara says. “Since when do you like any coffee that isn’t black and dredged out of the bottom of the break room coffee pot?”

“You’re just a wimp.” Alex mutters, crossing her arms and going back to studying her tablet with a frown. “Most grownups take their coffee black.”

“Really?” Astra puts in, in a tone of false bemusement. “You seemed to enjoy the full cream cappuccino I bought for you, during our walk to the library last weekend, Brave One.”

“That was- I was just being nice to you!” Alex splutters. “Kara told me to be nice to you!”

Astra hums and turns away, matching her niece’s knowing glance with her own smirk. “Ready for your second quest, Little One?”

“ _Am_ I.” Kara brags, arms on her hips. “I’m going to cook her a whole dinner; appetizer, main course, dessert, the works. I’m gonna-”

“Supergirl.” J’onn intrudes, a vein protruding on his forehead. “The metahuman.”

“Oh, right.” Kara says sheepishly, before flying out.

They all watch her exit, before swivelling to the screen as Supergirl shows up on it almost instantly. All except Alex, who looks at Astra instead, catching her staring.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Alex sighs. “I know she can handle it. I just worry.”

“You are talking to her aunt.” Astra replies, looking at her pinched mouth and downturned brows. “You won’t receive judgment from me. I am more interested in what was worrying you when I got here.”

Alex hesitates, shooting another glance down at the tablet, before shrugging her implied question off.

“Just some irregular signals we picked up last night, during our regular communications sweep around the city.” she says, as she turns back to the screen. “I’ve sent them over to Vasquez to investigate, but I don’t think it’s anything serious.”

And with that, she is walking back to her terminal decisively, leaving Astra to shake her head about stubbornly self-reliant humans. She heads the other way herself, towards the DEO training rooms and the fresh recruits awaiting her daily training session, when she runs into a human walking leisurely the other way.

“Agent Lane.” Astra greets her. “You’re the only one not watching my niece’s fight against the metahuman.”

“I don’t need to watch to know that Supergirl will kick Livewire’s ass.” Lucy says, not picking her pace up at all. “Just like she’s kicking yours in that challenge of yours, I hear.”

“You hear.” Astra echoes dryly. “As if you were not the one aiding and abetting her.”

“Hey, you’ve got Agent Scully on your side.” Lucy says, smirking. “I’m only making things fair. And besides, Kara doesn’t even need my help with this challenge. She’s a great cook, and she probably knows exactly what Lena likes.”

“Well,” Astra says, undecided on whether to be irritated over this, or pleased that her niece has such loyal friends, “I am not a terrible cook, myself.”

“Uh-huh.” Lucy shrugs, clearly humouring her. “Good luck, General. I’m thinking you’re going to need every bit you can get.”

Astra stares after her retreating form, frowning as an idea makes itself known in her head.

\---

 

“Alex’s favourite food?” Agent Winn Schott asks, scooting back in his chair as Astra suddenly appears in front of him, and voices her request that afternoon.

“Aside from my sister and the Martian, you seem to be the person here that she’s closest to.” Astra informs him. “So... ‘start talking’, as Agent Danvers herself would say.”

“I don’t know!” he protests, arms windmilling. “We don’t hang out that much outside of work.”

Astra considers the option of threatening him, but that would only earn her a disappointed look from Kara.

“You must know something.” she says eventually. “Or, you must be able to find something out.”

“It’s not like Alex is on social media.” he says. “You can’t really Instagram-stalk her, or something.”

“But Kara is.” Astra replies. “As is Lucy, and I believe Alex’s mother is, too, albeit sporadically. And she must be at least in the background of Catco events; Kara drags her to them often enough. Can you sift through them to find something?”

“Well-” he waffles.

“Do it.” Astra orders him.

He looks a little affronted at that, although Astra would wager that bravado would go away with a well-worded threat or two.

“I will teach you how to build a self-recharging Kryptonite blocker, if you do.” she tells him grudgingly, instead. “I know you struggled with the battery life, on the Kryptonite-deflecting suit you built for Kara.”

That has him lighting up, and almost jumping out of his chair in eagerness.

“Right!” he yelps, starting to clack away at his keyboard. “Just give me - just give me a few minutes, and we’ll see what we can find.”

It takes him more than a few minutes, with Astra breathing down his neck, as he sifts through photos and chatters away to her about pattern recognition programs. The result is a series of spreadsheets that Astra squints at, but which Winn assures her has the information she needs.

“You know, you could just ask her what she likes, instead.” he says, while downloading the information for her.

“That would be besides the point.” Astra says.

“This is going to be a disaster.” the agent says, in an undertone that he probably doesn’t register she can hear, as he hands over a tablet with the results to her.

“No.” Astra says confidently, startling him, as she thumbs her way down the screen. “This is going to be wonderful.”

\---

 

“This is a disaster.” Alex announces, jumping up and down to bat at the smoke alarm with some newspapers, as it starts beeping for the third time.

“I know what I did wrong this time.” Astra insists, taking the papers away from her and flying up to turn off the infernal device instead. “If we just try it one more time-”

“Turn that back on.” Alex orders. “Astra, I think we’re just going to have to admit that baking a cake is beyond both our combined culinary talents.”

“How was I supposed to know that you humans use two different sets of measuring systems simultaneously, when you cook?” Astra grumbles. “How can anyone keep them straight?”

“I’d say easily.” Alex replies, grimacing as she coughs up flour, from when the pan had exploded in both their faces. “But I guess I can’t talk, seeing as I’m the one who messed up the amount of baking soda I was supposed to put in.”

Astra looks around her kitchen, at the counters covered in dirty dishes, and the walls splattered with the residue of their cooking.

“Perhaps we could move to yours?” she ventures. “And try again?”

“And set _my_ things on fire?” Alex snorts. “Not a chance, general.”

She idly tosses a cracked egg shell lying on the stovetop at Astra, as she says that. Astra blinks as it bounces against her cheek, before gathering up some of the burnt batter and throwing it at Alex.

“Hey!” the indignant human says, before throwing a handful back herself.

And that, of course, starts an all out fight.

“If you use your superspeed, I’m ramping up the Kryptonite levels next time we spar at the DEO.” Alex threatens, hitting back with more egg shells.

“I think you’re just afraid to face me on fair ground.” Astra sneers, tossing the remains of the flour bag at her.

The entire baking pan is aimed straight at her head for that. Astra catches it out of the air easily, and retaliates by shaking the sticky contents of it over Alex’s head, unheeding of the growls that result.

“You _did_ use your superspeed there, cheater.” Alex grumbles, waving her arms and shaking her head to dispel most of it. “This is a mess.”

She falls silent when Astra brings a wet towel to her face. Astra takes her time cleaning away the flour and eggs, uncomfortably aware of both of the proximity, and of Alex watching her as she does so.

“This is why you shouldn’t go against me.” she says eventually, tossing the towel away and wiping the last residues of the cooking off with her thumb, looking away because that helps the words come out easier. “Things will get, as you said, “messy.”

Alex only scoffs at that, leaning back against the counter and watching Astra wash up at the kitchen sink.

“Astra?”

The name, whispered into silence in the dimly lit kitchen a while later, takes Astra by surprise. When she looks back at Alex, her face is shadowed, but it’s still easy for her to pick out every detail, including the fluttering eyelids.

“Yes, Alex?”

Alex moves in closer, and Astra blinks, almost overwhelmed by the woman in front of her, the scent and closeness of her caging her into the most welcome kind of prison, leaving her braced against that kitchen counter, as Alex uses a fresh towel to pat her newly washed hair dry.

“What you tried to make... Blackforest cake ...that’s one of my favourite desserts.”  Alex says eventually, while she tugs the towel through longs strands of hair, lingering on her dual white streaks for some reason. “Did you know that?”

Astra doesn’t give an answer, doesn’t really even dare to breathe at this heretofore unattained level of proximity.

“You know, I don’t really mind when things get messy.” Alex says eventually, as the silence persists.

Astra just stares at her, willing herself not to read more into those words than Alex probably means.

\---

 

She ends up flying for half the night after Alex leaves, trying to get her thoughts back into some semblance of order, and prevent her brain from veering off into disastrously hopeful daydreams. At the end of this odyssey, though, it her niece that Astra visits, landing on her balcony sometime after midnight.

“Aunt Astra?” Kara calls out, when she walks through the balcony door. It is a while before her niece herself appears, wiping down two freshly washed glasses as she walks in from the kitchen partition.

“It seems your night went much better than mine.” Astra comments, impressed despite herself at the beautifully romantic lighting of the dining room, with the central table set off in a soft glow. For all her protests against the ultimate objective of the challenge, Kara certainly seems dead set on winning it.

“Uh.” Kara says in reply, getting a deer-in-headlights look.

“Uh?” Astra echoes, instantly suspicious.

She’s aware that her niece can be a prodigious liar when she chooses to be. In front of family, though, her fundamentally transparent nature tends to take over, leaving tells all over the place, none of which Astra needs to spot the current evasion.

“It was great!” Kara says, using hand motions to emphasize her point. “There was food! We ate! A lot!”

“Is that so?” Astra asks, her eyes having caught something on the now-vacated dining table.

“Yes?” Kara replies, drawing the word out like a question.

When Astra moves to step around her for the table, though, she steps in front of her, albeit rather resignedly.

“You must have had a wonderful time.” Astra says, simply walking around her in a wide arc, indomitable in her quest to reach the table.

When she reaches said goal, and picks up the folded piece of glossy paper lying on the table, it feels as expensive to the touch as it looks. The pictures on it, featuring leafy greens and dishes of brightly coloured berries, are far removed from potstickers and pizza. Astra doesn’t need a detective’s nose to know that this is lightyears away from the fare that Kara prefers.

“Little One?” she asks, holding up the incriminating menu.

All at once, Kara seems to collapse, seeming almost relieved as she slumps against the counter.

“Ok.” she says, “Ok, I _tried,_ all right? I looked up so many recipes. I had a backup dinner for my backup dinner. I had desserts on _standby._ ”

“Then how do you explain this?” Astra waves the menu triumphantly again.

“And do you know what Lena wanted?” Kara continues, sounding frazzled as she waves Astra’s question aside. “Do you?”

“What, Little One?” Astra asks, too bewildered by Kara’s wild tone to even continue her gloating.

Kara moves closer to Astra, before revealing the answering the answer in a horrified whisper.

“ _Salad._ ”

Astra’s snorted laughter, mostly at Kara’s look of horror, escapes her despite a concerted effort to hold it in.

“It’s not funny.” Kara complains. “I just wanted to do this one thing for her, but she likes all this vegan stuff that I have no idea how to put together.”

“Little One.” Astra moves to embrace her niece, squeezing her until Kara’s hunched shoulders relax, and her face flops into the crook of her neck. “Lena wouldn’t think the less of you for that.”

“But, I wanted to do this for her.” Kara insists. “She’s so awesome, and I love her so much, and I just-”

She falls silent, breathing deeply against Astra’s uniform.

“And you just-?” Astra prompts.

“I want to give her everything she wants.” the reply comes, muffled into fabric.

“You make her happy, Kara.” Astra says. “That’s worth more than if you can toss a few leaves together into a bowl in a pleasing arrangement.”

“It’s not just the salad.” Kara mumbles.

“I know.” Astra says. “Still, my point stands.”

Her niece seems to be perking up as she lifts her head, though, looking a little less defeated.

“She did like the takeout we ended up ordering.” she says. “And she _really_ liked the complimentary kombucha they threw in.”

Astra must have made a face, because Kara snorts.

“I _know_.” she whispers. “I must really love her.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Astra offers, ”I almost managed to set my apartment on fire, while trying to complete my part of the challenge.”

Kara looks worried for a moment, then confused, before a smile crinkles her eyes again.

“I guess we can call this one a tie, huh?” she asks.

“If you can call a decisive defeat on both sides that.”

 _“I think maybe bad cooking just runs in our family.”_ Kara speculates, switching to Kryptonian seemingly unconsciously. _“Mother always said Father was a bad cook, too.”_

 _“Your mother had no right to be passing judgment on anyone else’s cooking.”_ Astra says. _“She put me in the hospital with hers, once.”_

 _“Oh Rao, I remember her telling me about that.”_ Kara says, snickering. _“Was she really that bad?”_

Astra smiles, marvelling that she is even at this point, where she can think about such memories without anger, or without the bitter pangs of loss attached to them. She knows such feelings are still there, for they manage to ambush her often enough. It gets easier with each passing day, though, to take the happy memories for what they were, than to dwell on the misery that followed them.

 _“She was a biological weapon of war, all on her own.”_ she confirms. _“Did I ever tell you about the time she almost murdered Zor-El, when she undercooked the meat during their very first unchaperoned dinner?”_

Kara shakes her head, her eyes overbright for a moment, before crinkling again in happiness. Astra leads her out into the balcony, where they watch the stars light up the sky, and she starts recounting the incident. In that moment, for that night, there is just aunt and niece, revelling in shared memories of a planet and people that only the two of them remember.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I typed this out on my flight. I was hoping to get the rest of the chapters out by the end of the week, but work travel is really setting me back, so I'll try my best :) Thanks so much to y'all for reading this :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted three chapters at once, so please make sure you're not skipping chapters ahead by accident :)

Standing guard over some human building late into the night, evaluating all threats entering and exiting, is not something General Astra In-Ze, formerly of the Kryptonian spacefleet, would have thought herself willing to do, even a year ago.

It takes only beseeching look directed at her by a beloved niece, for the List of Things Astra Does Not Do to be summarily revised, to include an exception for guarding LCorp, while Kara is away from National City. Which is why Astra is currently flying around said building, in the dead of night, at a speed too fast for human eyes to catch, all to ensure that the one person still working inside it is safe from harm.

It is nearing midnight when the glass doors of the balcony slide open, and the very human that Astra is supposed to be watching over emerges, looking around with a searching glance. Astra immediately flattens herself against the adjacent side of the building; she had agreed to guard, not to socialize.

“I’m assuming that’s Kara’s aunt, out there?” Lena Luthor’s voice reaches her, the tone as composed as ever, but with an undercurrent of incredulity to it, as if she is still adjusting to this kind of reality. “She said you might be dropping by.”

Then again, Astra reconsiders, part of getting to know Kara again, is getting to know the humans she cares about so much. She vibrates into view a few paces to the left of Lena, taking a seat on the handrails of the balcony.

“You might as well come inside, Miss... Zor-El?” Lena says, trailing off, as she sizes Astra up.

“In-Ze, not Zor-El.” Astra says, not taking up the invitation. “Astra will do, though. You have sharp eyes.”

“No, just functional security cameras that can slow down the frames per second of video.” Lena says, smiling slightly. “You’ve been flying by here the whole day. I’m guessing Kara got worried.”

Astra inclines her head.

“You know already, of course, that she is in Metropolis visiting her cousin.” she says. “She asked me to ‘keep an eye’ on this building, while she was away.”

“Keep an eye on me, you mean.” Lena says. “She doesn’t have to worry, you know. My brother’s already tried out his assasination attempt for the month. I’m safe for a couple of weeks, still.”

Astra pauses in her scan of the building’s entrance points, to eye the woman askance. Lena’s face is as bland as her tone, taking it in stride that her sibling would go to such extreme measures against her. Astra considers Alura speaking of her that way, in that tone, and feels a powerful wave of revulsion, made even more potent by how degraded their relationship had been, at the end of her time on Krypton.

“She worries about you regardless.” is all she says, outwardly. “Perhaps more so because you seem to worry so little about yourself, Bright One.”

Lena seems unsure how to respond to that, quirking an eyebrow and looking down. Astra leans closer to investigate the expression, before backing away immediately when Lena tenses. She has learned, through a lot of trial and error, aided by Alex’s often-exasperated input, that many humans have a wider sense of personal space than she is used to.

“I miss her.” Lena admits. “I know she’s back tomorrow, but I still miss knowing that she’s in the same city as me, flying around somewhere outside.”

Astra nods, though she doesn’t quite understand. No matter how far Kara and Alex go, even to the other side of the Earth, she can always feel their heartbeats. Can even hear their voices, if she concentrates hard enough. 

“She is there.” she says, pointing to the east when Lena looks up in surprise. “Roughly two thousand and five hundred miles in that exact direction. Her breathing is regular. I think she is asleep. She is safe, Bright One, and she will return to you.”

“You seem so sure of that.”

“I am a better judge of that statement than most.” Astra says, unable to keep a smile off her face. “After all, she returned to me, as impossible as that was.”

Lena looks a little confused, but stares out in the direction that Astra had pointed at. 

“You know, I think she will.” she says, sounding surprised at her own words. “She’s different, that way.”

“And you will need some sleep, before she does.” Astra announces. “You are even worse than Alex about late hours, it seems.”

Lena’s face, when she absorbs this criticism, is a study of astonishment mingled with nascent stubbornness.

“You should be asleep.” Astra reiterates. “Even Kara needs sleep, sometimes. Did you know that?”

“I can sleep when I’m not working on compiling the contracts for a major merger.” Lena replies, stubbornness winning over the astonishment, and turning her expression into a mulish one that Astra is very used to seeing on Kara.

Still... Lena might be stubborn, but Astra has learned something from her niece, too: the art of persuasion.

“The sooner you sleep, the sooner morning comes, and the sooner Kara returns.” she offers.

That earns Astra some interest in her argument, but it takes a bit more convincing before Lena actually decides to rest for the night. By midnight, though, there is an exhausted human fast asleep on Astra’s couch, when Alex kicks in the door to her apartment unceremoniously.

“Do you know that the motherfucker from Legal refused my request to access the paper on Rohltikon telepathy  _ again _ ?” Alex grumbles, as she comes in, “If he quotes the requisition rules at me one more time, I’m going to take his stupid binder and -”

Whatever anatomically difficult threat she had been about to utter trails off, as she stares at the sleeping figure on the couch, and then looks back at Astra, eyebrows raised.

“Taking in strays again?” This question is asked in a lower voice, as Alex tiptoes over to her.

Astra just shrugs.

“She seemed tired.” she says in a low voice, leading Alex into the kitchen nook instead. “I thought she might like the rest.”

“You thought she might like it?” Alex repeats, looking amused. “Or did you force her into it?”

“I did not.” Astra says, affronted. “Whatever you claim, I do not like strangers around my house.”

“Then why did you let that random vigilante from Central City crash with you, the other week?” Alex asks.

“I knew his mother, a long time ago.” Astra says. “I was only paying back a debt.”

“Uh-huh.” Alex says, following her into the nook and peering over her shoulder at the fridge. “You know, I think you’re the friendliest supervillain I know.”

“I am not... whatever that is.” Astra says, and then. “Out of no particular interest, how many other supervillains do you know?”

Alex just eyes her knowingly, in a way that makes Astra’s entire body feel warm, but also has her debating whether to throw the food she had saved for her off the balcony edge instead.

“Eat your dinner, and stop accusing me of amiability I don’t have.” she advises.

Even out on the balcony, though, safely shuttered away from listening ears, with food in hand, Alex’s expression remains somewhat gloomy, as she returns to the subject of her denied access request.

“Even J’onn said that unless it’s for an ongoing investigation, there’s no way he can fast-track my petition.” she says. “As if there’s some kind of lineup to read the only existing paper on the inner workings of the Rohltikon brain.”

“Why do you care so much about this?” Astra asks. “If I remember correctly, the DEO has never had to deal with a criminal of that species.”

“Well, no.” Alex says. “I just wanted to study their telepathic link. I want to know how it works. For fun.”

Astra considers that, the idea of science without any real purpose.

“You are very odd.” she says, after a while. “If you want such research so badly, though, I am sure that Alura would have included something about it, in the database that she sent Kara to Earth with.”

“Yes, but the files are restricted.” Alex says moodily. “Everything in the database related to species’ genomes, and their inner body workings, is beyond some kind of firewall. Even Kara couldn’t open it.”

“It can probably only be opened if the AI felt there was a real need for you to know the information.” Astra muses. “Still, I can access it for you, if it is protected by the standard Kryptonian security protocols.”

Alex eyes her warily.

“Do I want to know why you’d know how to crack those protocols?”

“Do you want the information, or no?” Astra asks, in turn.

That gets her another protracted stare, succeeding in making her uncomfortable this time, before Alex leans back in her chair.

“Fine.” she says grudgingly. 

“I am being nice to you.” Astra huffs.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Alex underscores the callous words by moving her chair closer to Astra’s, though, and a final reply, in a lower tone, escapes her before she resumes eating.

“Supervillain or not, I’m glad you’re on our side. I’m not sure I could take you out again, you know?”

That makes Astra feel inordinately proud, and has her smiling for the rest of the night.

\---

 

The next day, Astra begins in earnest her plan to secure a weapon, for the third part of her challenge to Kara. This leads to her lounging on the rooftop of the downtown NCPD headquarters, observing the goings-on in one of the offices below, when her DEO-issued communicator crackles to life. 

“Astra!” Alex snarls, as soon as Astra presses the button to receive the call. “What. The. Fuck.”

“Agent Danvers.” Astra acknowledges into her mouthpiece. “You should be working.”

“What are you doing?” Alex asks, sounding absolutely furious. “What are you doing  _ there?” _

“I thought my house arrest was done.” Astra says. “Why are you still following my movements?”

“Because I don’t want to be stuck paying bail, when you get arrested for trespassing on police property!” Alex hisses. “You can’t just go around sunbathing on the roof of the NCPD headquarters!”

“I am not bathing.” Astra defends herself. “I am gathering intelligence.”

“On what?” Alex asks, sounding merely exasperated now, rather than angry. “You do realize they’ve got security cameras installed up there?”

“I hacked into them.”

“Of course you did.” Alex replies. “Former criminal mastermind, right. Our satellites are still picking you up, though, and it’s only a matter of minutes before the NCPD wise up.”

“I do not need minutes.” Astra says. “Your sister is almost done her conversation with Detective Sawyer.”

“Wait, what?” Alex simply sounds confused, now. “Kara is what? With Maggie? Astra, what are you up to?”

Astra turns the communicator off instead of replying, which only results in her phone buzzing immediately, no doubt with irate texts from Alex. Astra ignores those too, tuning back into the conversation taking place three floors down.

“-these weapons were found in a warehouse raid our guys pulled, more than fifteen years ago.” Maggie Sawyer is saying. “We’re binning most of them, now that our mandated period of archiving them is past. If you need something from the stash, I guess I can put in a request with the captain, but our guys already tested everything and found them nonfunctional.”

Astra focuses through the rows of floors, to scan the cache of offworld weapons that Kara and Maggie are speaking about. She sees a few weapons she doesn’t recognize, in between many others that would be harmless to a human’s unstudied touch, but could be incredibly dangerous in the hands of someone who knew how to activate them.

Someone like Kara, for instance.

Astra frowns, as her niece reassures the detective that they would only need to borrow any chosen weapon for a day or so, and waits until Kara leaves the building, before catching up with her flight halfway around the city.

“Welcome back, Little One.” she says, as Kara veers back in surprise. “I see that you are already working on the next challenge.”

“I knew it!” Kara says grumpily. “You  _ were  _ listening in.”

“It was reconnaissance.” Astra says. “Your sister tells me that is a common procedure for the DEO to undertake, before important missions.”

“Oh Rao, I hate how you always catch on to Earth cultures at the worst moments.” Kara grumbles. “Fine, yes. I was meeting Maggie about the challenge.”

Astra simply smiles, and falls into pace with Kara, as they speed towards Catco.

“You are not going to visit LCorp first?” she inquires.

“I got back earlier than I expected, and found her at your apartment.” Kara says. “Thanks, by the way. She spends way too much time at work.”

Astra shrugs, following Kara into a steep descent on the Catco roof.

“I was worried at first, when I dropped by her office and she wasn’t there.” Kara admits. “She’s usually there very early.”

Astra watches her, hoping for some hint as to what had prompted such a confession out of Kara.

“Your visit to Metropolis was unexpected.” she tries. “Was it because of the recent attack on their city?”

“No, K- Clark took care of that.” Kara says.

She shifts from one leg to another as she shakes her head, before continuing in a more subdued tone.

“Lois got hurt in the crossfire, though.” 

“Kara-” Astra begins.

“It’s fine.” Kara says quickly. “She’s fine. I just wanted to see if Clark needed... well, anything.”

She stands side by side with Astra, braced against the parapet, and turns so her head rests on Astra’s shoulder, a familiar perch.

“Is that why you were anxious about Lena, today morning?” Astra asks her niece softly.

She perceives the shake against her shoulders as a nod.

“Are you still worried?”

“I’m always worried about Lena.” Kara mumbles. “And Alex, and Cat, and-”

Astra feels her burrow further against her shoulder, as her speech dies off. She feels unsure of the best way to approach this. Alura would know, would probably have embraced Kara, and whispered just the right things to make her feel at ease. As it is, Astra feels hesitant even to wrap an arm around her, unsure if it would be welcome in a moment of such vulnerability.

“Is it fear that is holding you back?” she asks, finally. “Kara, you know as well as I, that such an emotion gets us nowhere.”

Kara exhales a loaded sigh, and shakes her head, but no other reply comes. It is the loud vibrating of Astra’s phone that disturbs the silence.

“It is your sister again.” Astra says, after a cursory check. “I think she is very angry with me.”

“Don’t expect me to smooth things over this time.” Kara says, looking more cheerful now, at Astra’s predicament. “Not that even I can stop Alex, when she really gets going.”

Astra nods ruefully, smiling when Kara hugs her quickly, before speeding down towards Cat Grant’s office. 

“Good luck, Kara.” she says quietly, knowing her niece would hear it, before turning her attention back to the angry messages on her phone.

\---

 

“Alex, this is foolish.” Astra says later that afternoon, pacing exasperatedly outside of Alex’s lab at the DEO, fully aware that the woman is able to hear her through the glass walls.

Alex continues to ignore her, as has been the case for the past several minutes, while she peers down into the microscope that she is studying

“You cannot keep me out forever.” Astra says.

“Yes, I can.” comes the quiet and determined reply, as Alex replaces the slide she had been studying with another one, writing down some notes in between the switch. “That’s what you get for trespassing on municipal property.”

“You know I can break through this glass.” Astra tries. 

“Just try it.” Alex says, her voice low, but not low enough that Astra misses the threatening tinge of it.

“I cooked you lunch.” Astra says, resorting to her last, and most shameless, bribe. 

As if on cue, Alex’s stomach growls. 

“I heard that.” Astra says. “Open the door, Alex.”

“You heard nothing!” Alex’s sulky voice comes back.  

“Please?” Astra tries, sinking even lower than she had planned.

That has Alex looking up in astonishment, and finally striding over to push the lab door open... for just long enough to snatch the sandwich bag from Astra’s hands, before pulling it shut again.

_ “Alex.” _

It’s a few more seconds before Alex stalks back, yanks the door open again, and finally meets Astra’s eyes.

“Fine.” she mutters. “Get in.”

As Astra heads for the spare chair in the lab, though, Alex stalls her again.

“Uh-huh, hold on.” she says, putting up a staying hand. “Don’t you have something for me, first?”

“You already took your lunch.” Astra points out

Alex simply leans back and raises her eyebrows, still waiting.

“Very well, I apologize.” Astra says, folding her arms. “For trespassing on the NCPD building, and for not replying to your messages about it.”

There is a moment of silence, as Astra glares, and Alex studies her.

“Well?” Astra demands, impatient with the scrutiny.

“Fine.” Alex says, going back to her notes, while she wolfs down the sandwich. “You’re forgiven.”

“Well, that was a production.” Astra remarks, sitting down by her side, and spying on her work. “Have you found anything interesting?”

“I’ll find more when you get me the research notes from the AI that you were talking about.” Alex says.

“Soon.” Astra murmurs. 

She looks at the severe lines of Alex’s face, as she eats, and covers her writing her hand, when she puts the pen down.

“I truly am sorry.” she says, studying the table in favour of meeting Alex’s eyes. “I had not expected you to be this angry about it.”

“I’m not angry, Astra.” Alex says with a sigh, putting the sandwich down. “I was worried.”

Astra scoffs disbelievingly, without intending to.

“Yes, worried.” Alex emphasizes. “You can be reckless, especially about coming into contact with government forces.” 

“The Science Division has been reasonable, so far.” Astra says, refraining heroically from pointing out that Alex’s streak of recklessness runs far wider than her own. 

“Yeah, ok.” Alex allows. “But, not everybody in the NCPD agrees with the Science Division.”

“Then, again, I am sorry to cause you worry.” Astra says, stroking her knuckles. “You do too much of that, as it is.”

“It’s my job.” Alex says, smiling as if to laugh the statement off.

“It should not be.” Astra says. “Not when it comes to me.”

When she finally meets Alex’s gaze again, all trace of resentment is gone from there, replaced by a slight smile.

“You don’t get it.” Alex says. “I can’t just turn the worry off because you say that.”

Astra shakes her head.

“But, I am Kryptonian.” she says. 

“So is Kara. Don’t you worry about her?”

“Every day.” Astra admits. “But, that is different.”

“No, it’s the same.” Alex says. “It’s exactly the same.”

She seems to study her half-eaten sandwich, before sighing and meeting Astra’s eyes again.

“Astra, I-”

She stops, going pale as she puts a hand up to her communicator. Astra listens in, as Agent Susan Vasquez’s controlled voice comes over the air.

“Ma’am, Director says to suit up. There’s been an attack on LCorp.”

“Lena Luthor!” Astra breathes out, immediately standing up.

We need to get there!” Alex says urgently, but Astra is already grabbing her around the waist, and launching them through the balcony.

\---

 

In the end, it is Kara who gets there before either of them do, arriving in time to deflect the bullets headed for Lena, but not in time to prevent the chemical attack that Cadmus had preceded their main offensive with. Astra follows Alex’s orders in the containment work that ensues in the aftermath of the attack, able to spare only one worried glance towards Supergirl’s way, as she speeds off to the DEO with Lena’s prone form in her arms.

By the time Astra returns to the DEO headquarters, leaving Alex to report to her director alone, in favour of seeking out Kara instead, she finds her niece pacing back and forth in the medical ward, around the bed of her unconscious lover.

“She will be alright, Kara.” Astra says, listening to Lena’s heartbeat, which is as strong as ever, though the woman’s eyes remain closed.

“This time.” Kara says. “How many more times is our luck going to hold out?”

“This isn’t your fault, Little One-” Astra begins, but Kara just waves her off.

“It’s part of the job, I know.” she says. “But, Lena didn’t sign up for that.”

“I think Lena made her own choices.” Astra says, picking her words carefully. “To stand up for what she believed in.”

“But, I made it worse.” Kara says, shaking her head. “Her family wouldn’t be targeting her like this, if I didn’t get involved.”

“No-” Astra starts. 

“Aunt Astra.” Kara does not say anything else, and the words are not uttered in anger, but there is  a finality to them that draws Astra up short.

“Little One?”

“I can’t-” Kara’s voice pauses, and it’s a studied even tone when she speaks again. “I don’t want to argue right now, ok?”

This time, Astra shuts up entirely, simply watching Kara for further clues on how to react.

“I’m just gonna-” Kara makes a slinging motion in the direction of her sister’s office. “Over there, ok? I need to give J’onn my account of what happened, and see how Alex is doing.”

Astra wants to offer to come along, but something about Kara’s manner tells her that would be unwanted at the moment. She nods as casually as she can manage, and turns back to watch the sleeping woman in the medical ward, her mind a maelstrom of emotions and self-rebuke.

\---

 

It is a far more subdued Astra that visits Alex in her lab the following afternoon.

“The research files.” she says, handing over the small drive that Winn had lent her, “I asked that nervous friend of yours to save it into a format that your computers can use.”

Alex doesn’t immediately pore over the files, as she had expected her to. Instead, Astra finds a curious glance directed her away, along with a familiar furrowing of the forehead, as if  _ she _ is the complex problem that Alex is trying to decode.

“Ok, what happened?” Alex asks eventually.

“What?”

“Why are you and Kara acting like that? What happened between you two?”

Astra’s first instinct is to be defensive.

“Nothing.”

“Like hell it’s nothing.” Alex says. “Kara was quiet all night yesterday and you didn’t show up to greet her before the briefing this morning, like you usually do. So, what happened?”

Astra stubbornly looks at the ground.

“You should take a look at the files.” she says, when Alex simply waits.

When she turns around to leave, though, Alex’s hand clamps down on her wrist.

“ _ Astra.” _

Her voice is sterner now, more DEO agent than Alex Danvers, but there is a vulnerable undertone to it - as if Alex fully expects to be disregarded, and not obeyed - that gives Astra pause.

“I think I made things worse.” she admits, returning to Alex’s work table. “With Kara. And Lena.”

A short sucking of breath is all it takes for her to know that Alex understands, although she doesn’t say “I told you so.”, as she certainly would have over a pettier squabble. The silence, if possible, only intensifies that uncomfortable feeling inside Astra.

“Look, I grew up with Kara.” Alex says eventually, “I know you’re her aunt but... just, give her some space, ok?”

“I think it is more than that.” Astra says, frowning as she tries to put into words what she instinctively knows. “It is worse than that.”

“Family stuff always feels like that, Astra.” Alex says, “But, I know your heart’s in the right place.”

“Of course.” Astra says dully, not fooled by the uncharacteristic placation.

Overbearing. Controlling. Too much so by far. It is something Astra has always been aware of about herself, though she had written it off as the necessary cost of doing what needed to be done, for many years. That excuse fails her more and more often these days, especially when dealing with her own niece, and over such personal emotions.

“It  _ is _ .” Alex insists. 

Astra shakes her head.

“That doesn’t help me, Alex.” she says.

Alex keeps frowning at her stubbornly, as if sheer force of will could force Astra to accept her words.

“I’m wasting your time.” Astra says, eventually, reluctantly. “I will leave you to your useless research.”

“Hey!” Alex says, looking affronted. “It could totally have a lot of uses!” 

“But you said,” Astra begins, frowning in confusion, and quotes the woman’s earlier words. “That you were just doing it ‘for fun’. You said it was not for the use of the DEO.”

“That doesn’t mean the findings won’t lead to something useful, eventually.”

“Oh.” Astra considers this, although it is against any scientific process from Krypton that she is familiar with, and finds her curiosity piqued. “Useful for what?”

Alex stares at her suspiciously.

“Do you actually want to know, or do you just want a distraction?” she asks.

“Can’t both things be true?” Astra asks, “I am interested,  _ and  _ I do not want to think about my fight with Kara.”

Alex stares at her with suspicion and hesitation for a few more moments, before launching into an explanation of her research. Astra loses herself in the exclamations, and frustrated hand gestures, of a woman whom she does not normally get to witness being so expressive, and tries to forget the fact that learning how to be family to Kara will not be as easy as simply crossing over to the “right” side.

\--

 

It’s much later that night, when she has flown Alex home with her, and the human has fallen asleep on her couch in the middle of their conversation, that Astra experiences something that hasn’t happened in years. 

She is leaning back, listening to Alex’s soft snoring and debating the merits of sleeping herself, when her chest glows through her uniform. Astra blinks, before reaching in and fishing out the spy beacon from the chain around her neck, looking in wonder at the soft blue-ish glow of it. Kara hasn’t used it to contact her for years, not when she can simply fly by whenever she wants to see Astra. And yet here the spy beacon is, glowing. 

Astra experiences a fleeting moment of terror, that something awful must have happened, before she reins her senses in and seeks out Kara’s heartbeat, slower than that of any human in the city, finding it to be speeding towards her location now. 

Moments later, there is the sound of someone landing softly on her balcony. Astra shifts Alex’s snoring body away as gently as she knows, and floats over to the balcony, to be greeted by her niece in full Supergirl regalia.

Astra looks at the still-glowing beacon in her hand, and then at Kara, until her niece moves forward to connect their devices, extinguishing the light. She wonders, then, if this had been Kara’s way of giving her a warning, in case Astra hadn’t been willing to see her again.

“Lena is awake.” Kara says, sitting down in one of the chairs before Astra can question her about it. “I was just there with her.”

Astra nods, having heard the news from Alex already.

“She is resilient.” she says, cautiously feeling her way through the conversation.

Kara nods, smiling tremulously, and that’s all it takes for Astra to bridge the gap between them, and take her in her arms, embracing her as she has wanted to do since the previous night.

“I am so happy for you, Kara.” she whispers, when strong arms come around her too, and her niece squeezes her so tightly that even Astra feels out of breath.

“Why are they like this?” Kara mumbles against her.  “All of them?”

“Foolhardy?” Astra asks, lip twitching, when she pulls back. “Reckless? Prone to hurting each other? Prone to  _ getting  _ hurt?”

“All of the above?” Kara asks in turn, looking amusingly frustrated.

Astra sighs.

“I wonder if they think the same of us.” she wonders.

She feels her body shake with silent laughter, as Kara nods, and then squeezes her tight again.

“I don’t want to argue with you ever again, Aunt Astra.” Her niece says eventually. “Not when I just barely got you back, after I thought I’d lost you forever.”

Astra can only nod mutely. She remembers Kara’s tears falling on her face, when she had fallen to the ground of the rooftop, after Alex had stabbed her, remembers the moment of clarity when everything she had previously thought important had been shifted away, leaving only her niece behind, and wonders again at Kara’s skill at putting things into words so simply, in a way that she herself could never manage.

“Besides,” Kara says, pulling back, as a glint of mischief enters her eyes, “We have to hold off for the real fight, and you still haven’t even found a weapon to challenge me with.”

“I am sure that I will find something before the two weeks are over.” Astra says. “I may not have your connections, Little One, but I have a few tricks up my hand, still.”

“Sleeve.” Kara says, but she is laughing, and her posture is much less tense, as she corrects Astra. “Up your  _ sleeve _ . Rao, I feel like you’re getting worse with Earth terminology, not better.”

Astra makes only a half-serious affronted noise at this accusation, while Kara turns to look through the balcony curtains, at the sleeping Alex.

“I came to check on her, too.” Kara confides. “I know she was up late last night, organizing extra security around LCorp.”

“For now, at least, she is sleeping.” Astra says. “I have orders from your Director to keep her away from the DEO until tomorrow.”

“Thank J’onn for small mercies.” Kara says, “At least I don’t have to worry about my sister falling down dead from sleep deprivation.”

“They can do that?” Astra asks, a new worry entering her already extensive repertoire of fatalities associated with human beings.

“If anyone can make it happen, Alex would.” Kara says, shaking her head in what seems to be half-fondness, and half-exasperation. “I have to go back to Lena now, but I’ll drop by tomorrow, ok?”

Astra nods, and watches Kara disappear into the cloud sky, before carefully tucking the spy beacon back into her uniform, patting it snug against her chest, against her heart.

\---

 

Two days later, it glows again, a deep red this time.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Astra. She tries, but sometimes she gets it dang wrong. 'S why I love her.
> 
> Thank you for reading! :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted three chapters at once, so please make sure you don't skip to the last by accident :D

Two days later, the red glow of the spy beacon - red like Rao, red like blood - wakes Astra up from a rare sleep.

She bolts straight up in bed, and instinctively scans the city for the two heartbeats she has memorized. There is Alex only a few miles away in her own apartment, fast asleep, on her first proper night off in months. Farther westward, in the heart of the city, Astra can make out Kara’s excited voice chattering away to James and Winn, on some outing that the three of them had set out on. Astra considers alerting one of them, before looking down at the glowing beacon again. Coming to a lightning-fast decision, she speeds towards the signal alone, landing in a deserted field on the eastern outskirts of the city.

She knows what would will await her. Still, the sight of Non-Ur standing there, alive and well, startles Astra, as seeing a ghost would.

“ _ Non _ .” she says, the name coming out of her all in a rush, as she takes in the man whom she had last encountered fleeing from her at Fort Rozz.

He looks different, now, from their last encounter. Then, he had been frenzies and terrified, intent only on fleeing with Indigo and the rest of his sympathizers. Now, that same Non faces her alone with a cold look, and with a confidence that makes him seem certain of his victory, in the inevitable confrontation between them. 

Is is Astra who takes the first swing, missing him by a hair’s breadth as he falls back just in time. 

“Attacking before I can even return your greeting.” Non says. “I  _ have _ missed you, Astra.”

He strikes out with a fist before she can retort, and his attack lands, sending Astra skittering back a few steps before she regains her balance. Undeterred, she goes on the offensive again, and finds that he blocks her strike again. 

She has grown slower than him, Astra realizes with disbelief, by the third time this happens. She should not be - she has always been able to run circles around Non, in all the time they had trained together - and yet here he is now, anticipating and side-stepping her attacks so quickly that Astra might as well have been a sluggish human in comparison.

The reason for this becomes clear when Non rears back again for another attack, and his suit starts glowing green, the sickly light shining out through the black threads of the uniform.

“Kryptonite.” Astra says, trying to keep the fracture out of her voice. “But, you are still standing.”

The obvious question dies away when she spots a tiny glow of blue among the green all over his uniform, the tell-tale glow of the kryptonite inhibitor that she had designed.

“I still have mine, Astra.” Non says, following her gaze and tapping at the device. “Have you lost even that, from your past life?”

Astra takes a deep breath. She has not needed to use that inhibitor for a long time, not after the DEO had given up the bulk of its kryptonite reserves to Superman, and Alex had cleared out Cadmus’ reserves of it.

“You’ve learnt as much from the humans as I.” she says, “If this is what you are using against me.”

That makes Non strike out at her again, and Astra stumbles back, feeling the weakness in her limbs more keenly this time, due to the increased proximity of the kryptonite.

“I told you never to come back here.” she growls.

“But you flaunt  _ your _ presence.” Non retorts.

The spy beacon, Astra realizes too late. Kara using it after so long must have been what triggered this confrontation.

“You and that niece of yours.” Non continues, confirming her guess. “The one who flies through the skies as if she owns them.”

“Leave Kara out of this.” Astra growls at him. “You know she has nothing to do with what passed between us.”

“She has everything to do with this, Astra!” he roars, blasting her back again, with his heat vision this time.

Astra, crumpling to the ground, tries to return the attack, but her heat vision fizzles out a few feet away from her face, too weak to even reach Non. And yet, there is a blast of green light, coming from behind her, headed for Non, that causes him to stagger back before he can touch her again.

Disoriented, and bereft of her Kryptonian super-senses, Astra has to turn around physically, to see an agent in full DEO gear stalking towards them.

“Kryptonite grenade.” Alex says in clipped tones, as she nears. “One of the few J’onn allowed me to keep back, when he gave our stock away to Superman.”

“So you really are co-operating with the humans.” Non grunts, from behind her. “How low have you sunk, Astra?”

“Alex!” Astra says, ignoring him and instinctively stepping into the line of vision between her and Non. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Guess I woke up.” comes the laconic reply, as the visor of her helmet turns transparent with a flick of Alex’s fingers.

Then, furious brown eyes are looking between Astra and Non.

“Alex, you should not be here.” Astra says.

“Why not?” Alex shoots back. “At least I’m not affected by kryptonite. Did you even think about getting your inhibitor, before you sped out to meet him? Did you even care?”

Despite the anger and coldness of her words, there is something softer and vulnerable underneath it, something almost scared. It might miss Non’s notice, but it does not miss Astra’s.

“ _ Alex. _ ” she repeats, trying to fight through the haze and pain to get words out, to impress on her how serious this is. The words stick in her throat, though, tripping over themselves as her brain stalls.

_ He will kill you.  _

_ I cannot protect you from him. _

_ I am afraid, Alex. _

But, Alex clicks something in her hand, loudly enough that even Astra hears it despite her deteriorating senses, and Non is suddenly almost doubling over.

“You think I was going to let you run around with that thing, without coming up with something to counter it?” Alex asks, addressing Non without a waver in her voice, and with none of the deeper inflections that had been there when she had spoken to Astra. “I’ve been picking up on your signals around the city all month, asshole.”

_ Alex, what did you do? _

Non echoes Astra’s thought out loud, through grunts of exertion.

“What have you done, human?”

“An disruptor for your kryptonite inhibitor.” Alex says, sounding satisfied. “Feeling that radiation exposure yet?”

Astra blinks. True, Alex had once brought up such an idea with her once, but surely for a human to reverse-engineer Kryptonian technology was... And yet, Alex cannot be bluffing, because there is Non collapsing before Astra, looking almost as wrecked by the kryptonite as she herself feels. 

He manages one last blow before he goes down on his knees, though, striking out at Astra, the one closest to him. Astra finds herself flying back through the air like a rag doll, and hits the ground with an impact that knocks the air out of her. She scrambles to her feet, embarrassment and fury overtaken by terror for Alex, who had let out an enraged sound at Non’s final attack on her. 

The sight that meets her is oddly familiar. There is Alex, looking as fierce and warlike as ever, with the glowing green sword in her hands. Astra sees her stalking towards Non, and one word escapes her after all, stumbling past all the other words clogged up in her throat, and ringing into the night loud and clear. 

“No!”

She throws herself between the two of them just as Alex’s sword comes down, except that this time Astra’s skin is not pierced through, because Alex is pulling back just in time, her face ashen grey behind the visor.

“Astra!”

“No.” Astra repeats faintly, feeling Non crawl back behind, “Alex,  _ no _ . Let your director decide what to do with him.”

“I’m trying to protect you.” Alex says, and the hurt in her voice not an undercurrent, now. “Don’t tell me you care about him.”

“No, I care about  _ you. _ ” the words stumble out of Astra in a hurry, as she fights to breathe through the haze of kryptonite exposure. “And that is why- Alex, that’s why-”

She realizes at once her mistake in saying that, because Alex’s guard drops immediately, her eyes widening behind her visor. That is when Non takes the opportunity to lunge out from behind Astra, throwing something past her, aimed straight for the human.

Furious, Astra turns on him, only vaguely registering that the knife he had thrown had not struck Alex’s body, that it had been aimed at the hand holding out the disruptor instead.

“You are choosing to side with the woman who killed you?” Non grunts, as she falls on him.

“Non, enough!” Astra barks, restraining him with a hold. “Your fight is with me.”

“Fuck, he broke the disruptor.” Alex says from behind her, as Astra struggles to keep him down. “Astra, watch out, the kryptonite won’t work on him anymore!”

That is all the warning Astra has, before Non is shooting up from under her, and away into the air, nearly shearing her head off with the force of his ascent.

Astra, head swimming from the impact, raises herself on shaky elbows, watching Alex scramble on the ground for the disruptor that Non had knocked out of her grasp. It is clear by her frustrated grunt when she finally locates it, that it is beyond immediate repair.

“Dammit.” Astra hears her mumble, “That was the only prototype I got to work.”

Almost immediately, though, Alex turns away from the broken device. Astra hears the dulled thud of feet, and then Alex is looming over her, face twisted in an expression of deep worry that Astra has not seen on it for quite some time.

“Astra, are you alright?”

Astra shakes her head as she is pulled herself up, as if that would dispel the weakness coursing through her body even now, though the kryptonite is gone. It does not work, of course, but she manages to stand.

“I have to go after him, Alex.” she says urgently.

“Have you lost all tactical sense?” Alex demands. “You saw him, you saw what he’s equipped with!”

“It does not matter.” Astra says, fear clouding her mind over where Non could be speeding to right now, because his only other logical target would be ...“I thought he might- I thought he would stay away, but-”

She tenses, feeling her power return as the kryptonite’s effect ebbs away. She is preparing to spring up into the air after him, when Alex’s voice pauses her.

“Astra no! Wait for backup!”

Astra stops, mid-lunge, as Alex runs to her, clasping Astra around the waist, as if that would stop her.

“Look at what he already did to you.” Alex says. “What makes you think he won’t do it again?”

“That is better than letting him go.” Astray says.” Alex, you do not understand, I did this, I had a part in making Non into this-”

“I don’t care.” Alex says, desperation in her voice. “Astra, you let him go. You didn’t force him to come back, or continue this path.”

“But, I helped set the path in motion.” Astra argues.

“Think of how Kara would feel, if something happened to you.” Alex says, as if that track of argument was more likely to make her see sense.

“I am thinking of Kara.” Astra says. “I am worried of what could happen to her, at his hands.”

“We can face that together.” Alex insists. 

For a moment, Astra hesitates. It is tempting, to go back to her life, to let the DEO deal with it, and pretend that ramifications of her actions do not still exist in the world, pretend that they stopped the moment she threw away her cause in favour of Kara.

“No.” she says eventually, reluctantly. “I let him go, when I was shutting Fort Rozz down. I thought it was the right thing to do, then, but-”

“Maybe, or maybe not, but this still isn’t something you can fix alone.” Alex says. “I can’t let you face this alone, ok?”

“Alex-” Astra murmurs.

She is blindsided when Alex’s hands leave her shoulder, and come up to cradle her jaw, the grip gentle this time. And then, Alex kisses her. 

It is a gentle press of lips against cheek, holding in it all the tenderness that had been missing from Alex’s voice just moments ago.

“Ok?” Alex repeats more insistently, when she pulls back.

Oh.” Is all Astra can think of to say.

“Yeah,  _ oh _ .” Alex replies, nodding emphatically. “So, let’s get back to the DEO, let’s activate the tracer and-”

“What tracer?” Astra asks, pouncing on the one thing that she can handle.

“The one I landed on the back of Non’s uniform, when he was so distracted trying to deal with my disruptor program.” Alex says, smirking.

“You planted it on him while he was trying to kill you?” Astra asks.

Alex still has the smug smile plastered on her face, as she nods.

_ Oh Rao, she is the one.  _ Astra indulges that fervent thought for a second, before shelving it away.

“Alex, I-” she starts, trying to shake her head to clear it, but Alex just closer to her, as it magnetically drawn.

“Don’t go.” she says, brushing their lips together this time.

Astra shakes at the contact, and makes another half-hearted attempt to dislodge herself, but Alex just holds her head more firmly between her arms, hands cradling her head, as if Astra is not capable of breaking them like twigs.

“We don’t even have to go back. Kara will be here soon, ok?” the words are whispered between soft kisses pressed against Astra’s cheek, and forehead, and lips. “Just wait for her.”

The mention of Kara makes the memory of the Black Mercy rear up immediately, giving Astra the resolve to break away.

“Alex, I am sorry.” she says, and each step away from Alex feels harder than the one before, as if gravity has rerouted itself to center around the woman’s body. “I have to go. I have to find him.”

“But”- Alex starts

Astra shakes her head, and speeds into the air too fast even for the sound of Alex’s protests to reach her. 

\---

 

She finds Non halfway around the city, barrelling into him full-speed. He goes down, hitting the roof of the building they’re over with a thundering impact. Astra lands beside him, and feels the ground waving back and forth before her vision. She wonders briefly if there is an earthquake, as happens often in this city, before realizing that it is she herself who is swaying, her shaking getting more uncontrollable as Non stalks nearer.

“You followed me.” he says, in a surprised voice.” That is unlike you, Astra.”

Through her shaking, Astra is vaguely aware that he is not poised for an attack, but is simply studying her instead.

“What do you want, Non?” she asks, hoping that Alex has the good sense not to follow her, that she goes back to the DEO and warns Kara, that they stay away from this, from Astra’s mistake that only she should face the consequences of.

“You left.” he says, sounding almost like the soldier she once knew, the one who had only wanted to help people.

“I let you go.” Astra corrects him. “I gave you a choice, Non.”

_ Did you know the DEO was willing to kill you, if you had stayed? Torture you, rip you apart to study you, all of us, if General Lane had his way? _

“You left!” he roars. “Our general, our leader, you left!”

He blasts her with his heat vision, an obvious attack that Astra would have dodged easily, were she not shaking and struggling to stand. As is it, the blast hits her chest directly, almost bringing her to her knees.

“You know most of the people in that prison did not want to do my bidding, Non.” she tells him. “I binded them to our cause by force.”

“Not me.” he says. “I followed you by choice.”

“But, we had different end goals in mind.” Astra points out to him. “I knew, all along, what you were planning with Indigo. I wish I had not pretended otherwise, for so long.”

It had been easier to pretend, of course. To blind her eyes to Non’s more radical faction. Much easier to think of the outside world as her enemy,  _ their _ enemy.

Now she has Kara to think of, ever prodding her conscience, and Alex, who faith is precious all the more because it was so grudgingly given.

“I am not here to listen to your lies, Astra.” Non says, striking out at her again.

He has raised his fists to her before, only when they were training together, but he had rarely been able to land a blow, then. Astra had always been able to best him in hand-to-hand combat.

Until now, she thinks dully, feeling pain flare up her shoulder, as he lands a series of calculated blows easily. Once upon a time, it would have enraged her, how easily she had succumbed. She has little anger left in her, anymore, to fight vain battles. 

“Then why are you here?” she asks, spitting out blood, and landing a blow of her own, despite the poison coursing through her veins and slowing her down. “To kill me?”   


That results in a brief ceasefire, as Non steps back and surveys her, while Astra does the same through her rapidly blurring vision.

“No.” he says. “I need to know, first.”

Astra tenses, wondering what he will ask. Will he ask why she let him go, when she had scoured Fort Rozz? Or perhaps he wants to know what she plans to do now, after having given up her life’s cause?

“Why did you stop her from killing me?” Non asks. “The truth, this time, Astra.”

She blinks, not expecting that ambush of a question.

“Why,  _ wife _ ?” Non asks, spitting the noun out like an accusation.

“You know... we haven’t been that for many years now, Non.” Astra gets the words out with some trouble.

It seems an age, before Non speaks again.  

‘It was not for me, was it?”

There is grief on his face, of a sort, buried underneath the hate.

Astra blinks under the scrutiny, but does not speak, aware of blood already pooling in her mouth. Strange to feel the metal taste of it again, after so many years on earth. Even Samuel Lane, for all his torture devices, had never drawn blood out of her. 

“It wasn’t only for you.” she manages, in the end, because he was her soldier, perhaps in some way he still is, and his life is her responsibility.

Non’s eyes come alive then. As they glow, ready to deliver the killing strike, the strange red of them almost looks like Rao’s light, and Astra can only blink-

“Goodbye, Astra.”

-until there is a brighter red flying into her field of vision, and the pressure on her body eases, as Non is bodily thrown back.

“Aunt Astra!”

The last thing Astra remembers is Kara’s voice, before her head hits the pavement, knocking her out.

\---

 

When Astra wakes up, she mistakes herself to be on Krypton, at first. 

That feeling recedes quickly, as she sees Kara looming over her bed, tall and grown and absolutely furious.

“ _ Oh, thank Rao. _ ” Kara says, in rapid Kryptonian, before rage overtakes her fervent tone. “I don’t even want to know what you were thinking.”

“Kara-” Astra interjects.

“Thinking you could take Non on by yourself?” Kara seethes, right over her words. “When you knew he had kryptonite?”

At those words, Astra realizes belatedly why she had thought she was on Krypton.

“My powers-” she says out loud, looking down at her hands, at the fresh scars visible and crisscrossed across the skin.

This has happened to Kara more than once before, but never to her. 

“They’ll come back.” Kara says unnecessarily, looking momentarily mollified, in the face of Astra’s realization.

Astra nods impatiently, before looking up and surveying Kara. In the dim, her weakened eyes had not immediately spotted that Kara’s suit looks battered, the hardy fabric almost torn in places.

“You-” Astra says, before stopping and starting again. “Non?”

“Down in the cells.” Kara says. “Alex is talking about it with J’onn right now. They’re not going to sic General Lane on him or anything, but the DEO won’t just let him go, this time.”

Astra nods, and leans back, considering whether Non would want to talk to her, were she to go down and see him.

“Sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner.” Kara says, “Indigo and a couple of Non’s lackeys ganged up on me, along the way.” 

Astra looks at the scratches on her niece’s suit, at the bright red and blue tarnished with the attacks of her former soldiers.

“I am sorry.” she says, full aware that the apology encompasses more things than she can possibly account for.

“This?” Kara points down at herself before brushing Astra’s words away. “You should’ve seen the other guys.”

There is bravado in her tone, but her eyes look tired.

“I made you pay the price for my weakness.” Astra says.

“Because you let Non go, the first time?” Kara asks, a smile playing around her lips. “Aunt Astra, come on.”

“You got hurt today, because of that moment of-” Astra is stopped by a sharp intake of breath from Kara.

“Compassion.” Kara fills in. “For someone who shared the same fate as you for twenty four years, Astra. I don’t think I’d have chosen differently.”

She speaks authoritatively, now, and it does not escape Astra that Kara had dropped the address before her name. 

“That is not all I was referring to, Kara.” she says. “I never did apologize for what happened with Lena, did I?”

“You don’t-” Kara starts.

“But I  _ am _ sorry.” Astra interrupts. “I did what I thought I was supposed to do, but I see now-”

She stops, aware that Kara is watching her with an odd smile on her face. 

“What is it?”

“It’s kinda weird.” Kara confesses, smiling quizzically. “Hearing you apologize, I mean.”

Astra looks down.

“For what it’s worth,” Kara says, “There was some truth to what you said.”

Her smile turns sheepish when Astra looks back up at her. 

“I guess I  _ was _ scared.” Kara says. “Of what would happen to Lena, if she was officially my, well, something more than just my girlfriend.”

“Your love is in danger so regularly that she has joked to me about budgeting assassinations into her quarterly fiscal reports.” Astra comments.

“And I’m going to make it worse.” Kara says. 

“Maybe.” Astra says. “Or maybe it will deter many others from targeting Lena, when they know the lengths that Supergirl will go, to protect her.”

“That’s a lot of ‘maybe’s for me to be comfortable with.” Kara says. “I just wish that I knew for sure what the right way to move forward is.”

“I am proof that such a thing does not exist.” Astra says, gesturing at herself wryly. “But, you have always been better than anyone I know at approximating it, Kara.”

“Yeah?” Kara asks, shyly.

Astra nods.

“You will find the way.” she says. “A love like yours is worth fighting for.”

Kara laughs unexpectedly at that.

“Oh Rao, the challenge!” she says. “There’s no way you’ll heal before our two weeks are up, and I still haven’t managed to find a proper weapon!”

Astra shakes her head, bemused by such an irrelevant turn of subject, but Kara just laughs again.

“Maybe that’s just as well.” she says. “Maybe I don’t like fighting against you, even for fun.”

Astra smiles.

“Alex certainly seems to have no problem with it.” she comments. “She will probably be angry I won’t be able to attend our regular sparring session.”

It is as if a stage goes down on Kara’s face, because it turns somber again.

“Yeah, about that.” she says. “Alex  _ is _ upset. She’s been kind of a wreck, actually, until we got you stabilized.”

Astra freezes, her gaze focused so hard on the bed sheets that she fancies she can pick out the individual threads in them, despite her severely depleted vision. When she dares to look back up, Kara looks uncomfortable, fidgeting in her seat in an anxious way that reminds Astra achingly of Alura. Her eyes, though, are focused steadily on Astra, daring her to not look away.

“Look, I’m not-” Kara trails off, looks up at the ceiling and then back at Astra. “I’m not blind, Aunt Astra. Care to explain what’s going on?”

Astra fervently hopes for another kryptonite sword through the heart, another ambush, anything that would get her out of this conversation. Rao, as ever, fails to provide. 

“Am I going to have to guess?” Kara persists. “I mean, I’ve seen the way you you look at Alex.”

“No!” Astra says, horrified.

At one time, she had been worried about Alex finding out, anxious that the perceptive agent would already know, that they might drift apart because of the knowledge. 

She had never even accounted for the possibility of Kara finding out.

“So, you throwing yourself in front of her, tonight.” Kara continues. “What am I supposed to read into that, if Alex gave her account correctly?”

“Little One, I am sorry.” Astra says. “You must have misunderstood.” 

“No, I don’t think so.” Kara says, shaking her head stubbornly. “And, for what it’s worth, I’ve seen the way Alex looks at you, too.”

“But-” Astra fumbles for words. “Alex would not want... I would never do anything to make you-”

“You being happy is never going to make me unhappy.” Kara cuts her off. “I’m not some little girl who still needs to be told about the birds and the bees, Astra.”

“That what?” Astra asks, confused.

“Oh Rao, maybe I need to tell you about them.” Kara mutters under her breath, before waving Astra’s question away. “I just- I remember on Krypton, you were the only one that would tell me what was going on, sometimes, when even Mom was being cagey.”

“Kara, your mother did not deliberately seek out to deceive you.” Astra says, feeling uncomfortable to be in the position of defending actions she has never wholly agreed with. “She did what she thought was, well, right.”

“I don’t need you explaining her actions to me.” Kara says. “What I need is for you to be that person again, the one who trusted me to take things in stride, and draw my own conclusions.”

Astra nods, feeling the lost years against as a chasm between them. Her niece would always be her Little One, but of course Kara has grown up in the years that she was lost to Astra, has grown into a woman with as strong a mind as any that she has met. The thought makes Astra both sad and proud. 

“But, from what it sounds like to me, I guess you and Alex need to talk about this first, before you talk to me.” Kara says.

There’s a meaningful tone to her voice that makes Astra look up inquiringly.

“She’s outside.” Her niece explains, with a sigh of resignation. “I can hear her pacing a hole in the carpet. She’ll break the door in, if we keep her out any longer.”

There is a soft kiss pressed against her forehead, a gust of wind, and then Kara is gone. Astra hears the soft scrape of the door opening, the light from outside pooling in with the woman who enters.

\---

 

Astra studies Alex as she walks in, trying to find clues in her posture as to how she could be feeling. It is a study in futility. Alex is, after all, a well-trained agent.

“So you’re alive.” she says, her voice colourless, standing in front of Astra’s bed, rather than taking the seat that Kara had vacated.

“Does that please you?” 

“Does it please me that you let someone beat you up to the point of passing out, because you didn’t want to call for help?”

“Look on the bright side.” Astra advises. “You will not need to use up more of the DEO’s Kryptonite last remaining kryptonite stores, when you spar me this week.”

“Did the attack fry your brains too, instead of just your powers?” Alex demands. “Because, that wasn’t funny.”

Astra tenses, unsure whether to resort to more quips, when Alex looks angrier than when they usually banter.

“Ok, you’d have hit back with something by now, usually.”  Alex says instead, as the silence between them widens. “What’s wrong?”

“You kissed me.” Astra says.

The fight seems to go out of Alex, then.

“Yeah, I did.” She murmurs, sitting down.

Astra shakes her head, frowning. She suddenly understands Lena’s complaint, of not being able to rest when Kara was not in the same city. Here is Alex, barely inches away from her, but she might as well have been on another planet, because Astra cannot hear that familiar grounding heartbeat.

“I can barely hear you speak.” she says aloud, a complaining tone sneaking into her voice.

“Good.” Alex says. “Hopefully your loss of powers is going to make you think twice about facing someone like Non all by yourself.”

“Remind me, which one of us went into Cadmus’ lair armed with nothing but a gun, and no one on backup?” Astra murmurs, lying back and closing her eyes.

“That was different!”

“It was not, Alex.” Astra says. “You went in to face your father alone because you felt a sense of responsibility for him. For what he had become.”

The words hang between them in silence for some time, before Alex replies.

“God, I hate you.”

“Really?” Astra asks, remembering a time when she would not have been hurt by such an assessment from the human in front of her, or indeed any human at all.

“No.” Alex admits with a sigh. “I hate that you’re so much like me.”

“I see.” Astra says, considering the words, and coming to the conclusion that there is some truth in them.

“Is it really so bad?” Alex asks. “To be human, for a day or two?”

Astra cracks open an eye, frowning instinctively at the melancholic gaze levelled at her. She reaches up, thumb curving along the line of Alex’s frown, before cupping a cheek with her palm.

“No, but it is daunting to know that there could be another attack, and I would be powerless to help stop it.”

“Now you know how I feel every day.” Alex says.

“You almost killed a Kryptonian twice, Alex.” Astra says, amused. “I think you manage much better than I will.”

That, more than any gentle placating words, wins her a prideful upward tug of lips.

“I did, didn’t I?” Alex muses. “I’d have succeeded too, if it wasn’t for you, meddling Kryptonian.”

Astra cocks her head, certain there is a reference there, though she cannot place it.

“Why’d you do it, this time?” Alex asks, before she can question the source of it. “I had him, Astra. Why’d you stop me?”

“I am not having you going around killing people for me.” Astra says firmly. “I can do it myself, if the need arises.”

“I’ve killed before.”

“So have I, Alex. That does not mean you should be adding another notch to your tally because of me.”

Alex’s eyes soften, like she sees the things Astra leaves unsaid.

“Is that right?” 

“Yes.” Astra says, affirming the unsaid confirmation as well as the spoken one.

Alex turns into her hand then, kissing the palm of it. 

“See, now you even sound human.” she says, reaching up to cover said hand with her own. “All lack of powers aside.”

“Human, am I?” Astra asks, amused, intertwining their fingers together. “Why do you act like your species is the only one in the universe to ever feel compassion, or other finer emotions?”

Alex huffs and looks away, reddening.

“You know what I meant.” she says. “Wasn’t it you who likes to go on about how ignorant and backwards all of us human beings are?”

“Tissue.” Astra says.

“Touché.” Alex corrects her.

“I do not feel human, though.” Astra says, circling back to the point they had been arguing about. “I feel... the way I did on Krypton.”

Not knowing how to take that, she flexes her hand, and feels Alex squeeze back, her fingers burrowing into the space between Astra’s own, as if Astra would fly away, to Krypton perhaps, if she was not held so tight. There is another kiss pressed against their joined hands.

“Human or Kryptonian,” Alex murmurs, “I kind of like seeing you like this, once in a while.”

She shifts, turning away from the door, and Astra feels the energy in the room change, as they look at each other, aware that no one else is in earsight. There is a different look on Alex’s face now, fiercer and hungrier, as she takes in Astra. Astra feels a thrill shoot through her under that intense study, not unlike the rush of battle. She is aware of her heart thudding, the sound of it rushing through her entire body.

“Like what?” she asks. 

Instead of answering, Alex simply reaches forward. Her free hand travels past Astra’s face, curling instead into her hair, and threading through strands both brown and silver. She tugs, and the intent in it is demanding and sure, rather than violent. The feel of it is different, too, the usual hypersensitivity replaced by a sheer feeling of strength.

“That.” Alex says at last. “You felt it, right?”

Astra nods wordlessly, and Alex settles back in her seat, looking satisfied.  
\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me @ myself: Why can't you ever write crack that actually stays crack for once???
> 
> Thank you for reading! :D


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted three chapters at once, so please make sure you don't skip chapters by accident :D

It is the next evening, alone in her apartment, and supposedly recuperating, that Astra hears the key turn in the lock, and the door slammed shut in a hurry.

She stares away from the journal she had been reading, towards the bedside cabinet, wherein lies the gun that Alex had left there after her last visit. Before she can make a decision, Alex’s loud voice issues from the living room.

“It’s just me!” it calls out, before the owner of the voice herself is rushing into Astra’s bedroom.

“Quick, hide me!”

Astra avoids stalling with questions. She simply lifts the blankets, and Alex slides in with a running leap, snuggling into the side of the bed facing away from the door.

“What happened?” Astra asks, her nascent anxiety about Alex being in any real danger disappearing when the woman starts laughing silently against her neck, her entire body shaking as she holds on to Astra.

“I’m hiding from J’onn.” Alex confides. “And from Pam in HR. They’re on the warpath.”

“What did you do?” Astra asks.

There is a gentle, rebuking smack on her arm, followed by a “Why are you assuming it was something I did?”

“What did you do, Alex?” Astra repeats, eyeing her knowingly. 

“Well,” Alex says, “Remember that unknown liquid we bagged from that warehouse bust on Easton and Lowood?”

“Yes.” Astra says, frowning as she processes the words. “Alex, you did not-”

“I just wanted to find out what it was.” Alex says, defensively. “And well, turns out it reacts badly to most of the testing solvents I developed.”

“How badly?” Astra asks, immediately scanning her body for any fresh signs of wounds.

“Blow up the lab and trip a fire alarm kind of badly?” comes the sheepish answer. “But, it’s not like there was anyone there except me, and I had goggles on and everything!”

Astra smiles despite herself, mostly relieved to find Alex free of new injuries.

“And now J’onn asked Pam to get me to sign a form saying that I won’t do any experimentation like that again without his express permission.” Alex says. “Which is obviously-”

“Somewhat reasonable.” Astra says.

“Tyrannical.” Alex finishes. “Which is why I’m lying low until they get distracted by whatever latest disaster Winn cooks up.”

“So why are you here?” Astra asks.

“If I went to Kara’s apartment or mine, they’d find me.” Alex says. “But you’re supposed to be sick, and resting. Even Pam wouldn’t dare break down your door.”

“You are using me.” Astra accuses her.

“Absolutely.” Alex says, snuggling closer to her. 

“I should call Kara right now, and turn you in.” Astra muses. “You really  _ can _ be reckless, in the lab. Restricted access might do you some good, as punishment.”

“You think so?” Alex asks, face burrowing further against her neck, in a way that has Astra’s breathing stalling. “Too bad. And just when I was going to build you a kickass weapon in there, to use for that stupid challenge.”

“Kara called that off.” Astra says. “I think she has her own ideas about how to proceed with Lena, now.”

“Huh.” Alex says, looking at her with a puzzled expression, as if wondering why Astra gave in so easily.

“Besides, the challenge period is over.” Astra says.

“Fine, I’ll scrap my blueprints.” Alex says, looking just a little disappointed as she returns to her resting position against Astra’s shoulder. “But, just so you know, I would have built something good.”

“I am sure you would have.” Astra agrees. “And, as long as it comes nowhere near my heart, I am willing to swear to that.”

That earns her a glare.

“Too soon.”

“It has been almost three years, Alex.”

“Still.” Alex grunts.

Astra simply hums and stares up at the ceiling, magazine forgotten, aware only of Alex breathing against her throat, every exhale sending her hair flying.

“For what it’s worth.” Alex says finally. “You won.”

The ceiling is forgotten, too, as Astra meets Alex’s eyes again.

“No.” she says. “Kara said- we-”

A hand against her cheek, and a thumb sliding over her bottom lip, cuts off her protest. 

“You know,” Alex murmurs, “For a great tactician, you can be really obvious sometimes.”

“Am I?” Astra asks, very eloquently.

“Uh-huh.” Alex says, looking very pleased over it. “You might as well be-”

Astra reaches out, fast as she can manage at the present, which is just fast enough to throw Alex off-balance, and brings their lips together. 

She feels Alex’s arms coming up to cradle her entire head again as they kiss, in that odd way that makes Astra feel like she’s caged in, as if there’s just Alex all around her, blocking out everything else. She can only feel what she touches, and see and hear what is close by, but even that is overwhelming when Alex is the one touching her, when Alex is the one who sighs half-formed words against her mouth, whose eyelashes flutter so quickly out of nerves that Astra loses count of their vibrations.

“You won, ok?” Alex says against her lips. “I meant that, Astra.”

“No.” Astra gasps out, when she finally pulls back. “It was Kara. She won the first challenge.”

“Nuh-huh.” Alex says, bending down to kiss her again, which is when Astra first becomes aware that she has climbed on top of her.

When they break apart this time, Astra just stares up at her, breathless at the sight of Alex straddling her hips, thighs squeezing around her body in a way that has her heating up immediately. Suddenly she feels oversensitized, feeling every minute shift of Alex’s own just as clearly as if she had her superpowers back. Their hands brush as Alex braces herself on the bed, and Astra has to swallow. Alex leans forward, and Astra just  _ wants _ .

“You know just when to bring me coffee.” Alex says, fingers still running over her face as Astra blinks, unable to take her eyes away when Alex is so close to her. 

Her thumbs trace over her cheek, and Astra fancies she can feel every whirl of her fingerprints, the coarseness of every scar that Alex had taken on the job.

“You keep lying about cooking too much food so I have something to eat every night, Astra.” Alex says, moving down even closer, so her lips almost brush against Astra’s face. “Even I don’t care about myself in that way.”

“You should.” Astra murmurs. “Think of how Kara would feel if something happened to you.”

“Something always happens to me.” Alex says, a watery smile on her lips, as she pulls back to look at Astra. “That’s kind of in the job description.”

“You were only in danger because Non attacked you.” Astra says. “This was a danger of my own making, Alex.”

It had been easy to shirk responsibility, on Krypton, and inside Fort Rozz. Blame it on the Council, on Alura, on bureaucracy. She has no such luxury here. She had been the general of the Fort Rozz inmates. She had made the choice to defect. She had made the choice to put Kara and reconciliation over her cause. And yesterday, Alex had almost died for it, and does not even seem to realize Astra’s culpability in the matter. 

“But, you saved me.” Alex says, reading her mind surely as if Astra had spoken that self-chastisement out loud. “Weapons or not, you put your own body between me and him.” 

Astra stares up at her, wanting to believe, but unable to quite make herself do that.

“Astra, you won.” Alex whispers, before closing the distance between them again, and covering her lips with her own.

It’s hard for Astra to know exactly how long the kiss lasts this time, but it leaves them both gasping when they separate, and she has tugged Alex’s shirt up as far as it will go, revealing a faded bra, and a torso riddled with old scars that she’s seen many times before, when patching her up after fights.

“I thought I’d never get to do that to you.” Alex admits, breath hitching as Astra reaches up to run her hands over that scarred expanse.

Her lips are wet, and red from Astra’s bites, and all Astra wants to do is pull her down and kiss her senseless again. Before she can, Alex is bending down to lick and bit down the line of her jaw, humming in time to Astra’s squirming.

“ _ Alex _ -” Astra breathes out, before falling silent, unable to form words as she feels teeth now grazing up and down her throat, the pressure so light she would never have felt it regularly. 

“Yeah?” Alex says, and Astra feels the word vibrating against her throat, making her shake too.

“Alex.” she murmurs again, and Alex makes a noise and bites down, making Astra gasp and draw her body down tighter.

“I’ve been - wanting - to do this - for so long.” Alex says, the words broken up between bites and licks.

Astra has always felt it when Alex touched her, even if was just a fleeting brush of the back of their hands as they stood side by side. Now there is simply... more. Gone is the super sensitivity of her Kryptonian powers, but the dullness left behind only makes her more acutely aware of every part where her body is in contact with Alex. She lets the nips continue for a while longer, until she grows too eager to touch, to take full advantage of this newfound sensitivity.

“Up.” she says, pushing at Alex, who lifts away from her lips reluctantly.

Astra sits up at and takes advantage of the position to kiss down column of Alex’s throat and across her breasts, while her hands strokes up her sides, building a want inside herself that seems to be mirrored by Alex, who rocks rougher and more desperately as Astra continues. When she clips her bra off and tugs the shirt up entirely, Alex goes slack against her body, nosing into her cheek, as Astra palms her breasts.

“Take off your shirt.” she murmurs. “It’s not fair otherwise.”

Astra leans back to a few seconds to allow Alex to tug it off, and then she’s pulling their bodies together again, licking and nicking at the soft valley of Alex’s breasts, while Alex’s hands find her own, rubbing circles of warmth over them. When she finally moves her meandering hands lower, inside the waistband of her trousers, Alex bucks against her, exhaling a quiet hiss of impatience. 

“How long are you gonna tease me?” she asks, pushing Astra back down on the bed and nosing against her neck, moving against her fingers as much as Astra’s iron grip on her waist will allow. “Get to the good stuff already.”

Astra smiles, but continues her slow exploration, feeling her way down the inside of Alex’s thighs, before coming up to stroke around her folds. 

“More?” she asks, and Alex just nods before her lips seal against Astra’s, her kisses hungrier and more demanding now.

When she rubs against her center, fingers pressing against the wetness there without entering, Alex’s lips slip away from her, teeth nipping down Astra’s jaw instead. Astra swallows, biting her lips and trying to keep her fingers from shaking, as kiss after unsteady kiss is pressed down her jaw and throat.

“Inside, Astra.” Alex mumbles feverishly against her skin. “Inside, please.”

Astra slides a finger into her accordingly, fumbling only a little as Alex gasps immediately, gripping her hair. Her fingers curl into them, tugging and loosening in turn, while Astra moves inside her, testing the reactions to her strokes.

“More.” Alex gets out in between labored exhales, and her hands tighten even more in Astra’s hair.

Astra draws out instead, and massages around her folds again, in a steady rhythm until Alex is gasping incoherently. 

“Astra-” she finally manages something understandable, when Astra re-enters her with two fingers, marvelling at how ready and open Alex is for her then. “Astra, yes-” 

Astra hears those words repeated over and over again, as she moves into her faster, curling into that spot that gets a whimper out of Alex, and stroking against it steadily. She adjusts her position slightly to add a thumb, and finds herself gasping, as teeth sink into her neck.

“Alex!”

She gets a formless moan in response to her gasp, as Alex rocks against her fingers, growing softer and more open for her with every movement.

“Yes, like that, Astra, please, yes-”

Dazed by want, Astra doesn’t know what she says in response to that, or even whether it was in English or Kryptonese. Whatever it is, Alex comes as as says it, with hands clenching into her hair and a gasp exhaled against her neck, while Astra still moves inside her, softer and slower now.

“Fuck.” Alex mumbles out eventually, when Astra draws her fingers out. “I’m definitely getting attacked by rogue Kryptonians more often, if you do that to me every time it happens.”

She kisses Astra’s protests silent, her mouth as eager on hers as before.

When they pull away, Alex just watches her for a while, hungry eyes travelling from her face, down to her exposed chest, and then further downwards. She tugs at the drawstring of the sweatpants that Astra is wearing, fingers stroking along the length of the cord in a way that has Astra focusing on them, mind scrambled by thoughts of what else they could do.

“These are mine.” Alex says, biting her lips as she looks at Astra. “The shirt, too. I dressed you in them when they brought you here. Figured it was better than keeping you in the uniform.”

The attire would have felt odd and uncomfortable at any other time, but the knowledge that it belongs to Alex, and the way Alex looks at her as she says that, makes Astra nod, legs slack, as they are tugged down.

Alex seems gratifyingly dazed as she stares down at the now completely naked Astra, the beautiful muscles of her neck working as she chews the inside of her lip. Astra stays quiet, willing to just drink in the sight of Alex hovering over her, something she had never thought would be within her reach.

“I can’t believe we’re here.” Alex admits, looking at Astra in the way very few have, with sheer undisguised want. “If you’d told me even one year ago that I’d be going down on you today, that would have blown my mind.”

“And what is this going down?” Astra inquires straight-faced.

Alex’s jaw works, as she stares at her.

“It’s, um-” she says, flushing crimson. “It’s when I-”

Astra smirks and tugs her down forcefully, so that Alex yelps mid speech. She covers the sound with her lips, tongue slipping into Alex’s mouth without foreplay. She finds her just as eager and ready as before, as feverishly wanting as Astra feels. It is Astra who comes apart though, when a knee pushes itself between her thighs as they kiss, moving against her with just enough pressure to make her keen into Alex’s mouth.

“Not what I was going for.” Alex gasps, when they pull back for air. “I was thinking more like-”

“I know what going down means, Alex.” Astra manages to get out, despite being dazed from Alex moving against her with that single-minded intensity.

Alex’s eyes darken as she says the words, and Astra feels a slight pang of disappointment as she shifts away from between her thighs, a feeling that is immediately replaced by anticipation from the way Alex is looking at her.

“Yeah?” Alex says, voice rough.

She doesn’t look away from Astra, as she laces the fingers of their left hands together, pressing them down into the sheets. She brings Astra’s right hand up to kiss her palm, and Astra feels her entire body suffuse with warmth and want again.

“Yeah?” Alex repeats.

“Alex-”

“Say it.” Alex interrupts, still watching her intently, apparently holding her breath. “Say it, what you want me to do to you.”

“Rao, Alex.” Astra exhales, caught by that intense gaze, and entirely uncaring of what comes out of her mouth as long as it is focused on her.

She voices the request in Kryptonian, more comfortable saying it that way. It is not exactly in the form that Alex had asked for, but the other woman nods, still staring at her, jaw slack.

“Wow.” she says finally. “God, Astra. Just... wow.”

Astra doesn’t know what impatient noise she makes in return, but Alex takes the hint and moves down again, pressing fleeting kisses down her breasts and torso as she goes. She bites and licks her way down her thighs, and Astra shakes with every touch, held down only by the weight of Alex on her. Then Alex is moving up again, teasing her legs apart with a shrug and lift of her shoulders. She looks up to make eye contact with Astra one last time, waiting for her jerky nod, before her heads ducks back between her thighs.

Astra rears up at the first swipe of Alex’s tongue against her, but Alex’s fingers dig into the top of her thighs, holding her in place with a strength that is just as breathtaking as the dexterity of the tongue that swirls and licks into her. She finds herself making near-incoherent noises, garbled phrases in Kryptonses and English begging Alex to continue, while her fingers fist and unfist into the sheets, for lack of nothing better to hold on to.

“My hair.” Alex says from below her, the sound muffled and vibrating into her as Astra shudders.

She takes the hint and reaches down, curling and twisting her fingers into smooth short hair instead, dragging Alex further into her. In response, one of Alex’s hands dig even harder into her thighs. Astra almost passes out from sensory overload, words giving away to gasps and whimpers as Alex continues.

Astra comes with her eyes closed, her every sense filled with only Alex, Alex, Alex. When she opens her eyes again, staring slack-limbed at the ceiling, out of breath and half out of her mind, it is one of Alex’s human words that come to her.

“Wow.”

“Wow is right.” Alex replies, climbing up her body to smile at her pridefully.

“And you accuse me of being boastful.” Astra says.

“I think I earned the right, this time.”

Astra just smiles, feeling loose-limbed and relaxed in a way that feels unfamiliar. She tenses, though, when Alex shifts off, the warmth leaving with her.

“You have to go?” Astra asks, trying to quash down the feeling of loss that rears its head up immediately.

There is a reassuring kiss pressed against her cheek, before she can go down a rabbit-hole of self-chastisement for hoping for more.

“No, just checking in with J’onn, so he doesn’t come looking.” Alex says, fishing out her phone from her discarded trousers, and tapping away at it.

At this reminder of the DEO, Astra sobers.

“I need to smooth things over with Kara further, tomorrow.” she sighs. “I want her to to know without a doubt, that I support her no matter how she moves forward.”

“Mmm.” Alex murmurs, putting the phone away after tapping at it some more, and curling back around her. “Kara knows where you’re coming from."

“Yes, well.” Astra says, not entirely convinced. “I’ll need to talk to Non too, and see what your Director wants to do with him.”

“Tomorrow.” Alex grumbles, hands wrapping around her just a little tighter, more protectively, at the mention of Non. “If you leave this bed today, I’m kicking your ass myself.”

Astra smiles, unable to get too riled up by Alex’s threat, when wrapped up in the delicious warmth of her body.

“Even in the state I am in, I would like to see you try, Alexandra.”

“Yeah?” Alex asks, lifting up slightly and watching her with narrowed eyes, before she darts down. 

Astra expects another kiss to her cheek, but Alex veers away at the last moment, lips brushing against her mouth and jawline, before she starts nipping down her neck, tongue flicking out periodically, more as if to taste her bites than to soothe them. 

Astra presses her lips together so hard that she knows it will bruise until she regains her powers. She had thought she was satisfied, but it had taken only the first kiss for the hunger to come back, and every subsequent touch intensifies it.

“Alex-” she says warningly, as she feels heat flare up her body again, making her voice shake just the tiniest little bit.

“I said I’m keeping you in bed.” Alex says, moving back up, breath hot against her ear. “I didn’t say I was letting you sleep.”

“And I did not say I was complaining.” Astra says, tugging Alex back towards her lips and kissing her fully.

“Round two, then?” Alex asks, grinning against her mouth.

“Round two.” Astra confirms, with a smile of her own, taking advantage of the moment to flip the off-guard Alex to her back.

Alex just stares up at her dazedly, as Astra reaches down, and just then, just for that night, everything is alright within their little world.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aware that this chapter is pure porn and I really did debate on posting it, but since I wrote only this and the first chapter before fleshing everything in between, it felt right to finish with it. 
> 
> And AHHH, I was like, a WHOLE MONTH later in finishing this than I expected, but now I'm done. So, thank you for anyone who made it to the end of this odd lil crack fic that refused to stay crack. I hope you got some enjoyment out of reading it, as I got out of writing it!!! :DDD

**Author's Note:**

> I was really hoping to post all five chapters together, seeing as I have all but the middle 1.5 chaps written, but I am slowww and I have to travel for work this week, so I thought I'd at least post the first two chapters before I missed the deadline entirely. I hope you guys like this! :)


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